PGA Championship Payout 2012: Projected Payouts for Tournament Leaders

With just one round remaining in the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, there is still plenty of drama left to unfold, but many fans are wondering exactly how much the top finishers will pocket. There isn't a definitive breakdown yet, but if 2011 is any indication, there will be some very happy golfers at the end of the final round.

The PGA Championship has a total purse of $8 million, according to John Callaghan of GolfandCourse.com. Keegan Bradley took the title last year, winning $1.445 million. That will once again be the case for the winner in 2012, so whoever comes out on top will earn a nice chunk of change in addition to a major victory.

Callaghan also has a full table of prize money from last year's PGA Championship and it shows second-place golfer Jason Dufner winning $865,000 with Anders Hansen taking $545,000 for third. Exactly how much golfers earn will have to do with ties and the like, but those numbers should be fairly similar this time around.

The vast majority of these golfers are already rich beyond belief since they accumulate prize money throughout the season, but if an under-the-radar golfer is able to pull out a win somehow, then the money could certainly be life-changing for him.

For most of these guys, though, it's just another check to add to their ample bank account.

With ties included, the top 18 golfers took home at least $100,000 last year, meaning a guy who comes in 18th place this year could make more in four days of mediocre work than most of us do over the course of an entire year.

Considering how much athletes make in golf, or any other sport for that matter, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise, though.

The prize money is probably something that we think about more as fans than the players do. As I said, money is no object to a lot of these players and they are simply trying to gain golf immortality to some degree by winning a major. That is the ultimate prize for most, although the money doesn't hurt either.

Purses are up an incredible amount compared to what they used to be, and Tiger Woods is probably a big reason for that. He increased interest in golf in the late-1990s in a big way and the sport has been extremely lucrative ever since. Tiger is a guy that many of these golfers have been chasing, but they also owe him a lot for what he's done for the sport.

On Sunday, those players are going to be out there for themselves, however, and will want the money and title of major champion.

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