Joburg Open winner will pocket R3m – nowhere close to Johnson’s Masters prize

Making the cut and being in the top 10 at golf's majors means big, big money for the South Africans.

South Africa’s Dylan Frittelli banked a cool R6.7-million for his four days of work at the Masters last week. Picture: Getty Images

Masters champion Dustin Johnson didn’t only bag himself a nice Augusta National green jacket on Sunday, he also pocketed a cool R31.8 million ($2.07 m) for his efforts over the four days at the year’s final major.

His record score of 20-under-par saw him win his first Masters by five strokes.

The South African representation was led by former United States college star, Dylan Frittelli, playing in his second Masters. He finished in a tie for fifth and collected a whopping R6.7 million ($437 000) for his efforts.

The recently confirmed “big-name” catch for the SA Open, to be played at Sun City in the first week of December, was the big winner – cash-wise – of the six locals who teed it up in Augusta, Georgia last weekend.

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Louis Oosthuizen (tied-23) earned R1.8 million, former champion Charl Schwartzel (tied-25) pocketed R1.4 million, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (tied-38) won R780 000, while Justin Harding, who failed to make the cut, bagged R154 000. Erik van Rooyen, who withdrew from the tournament with illness or injury after the first round, also grabbed himself R154 000.

It is interesting to note just how rich the US PGA Tour is and how big the major golf tournaments are when it comes to prize money.

Compare last week’s Masters, with a total prize fund of R176 million to be shared among the full field, to this week’s Joburg Open at Randpark. The local Sunshine Tour players, with a sprinkling of European Tour players thrown in and vying for the co-sanctioned event’s winner’s cheque, are playing for a purse of R19.5 million.

The winner this week at Randpark will pocket a cool R3 million – a very handy sum of money, but a 10th of what Johnson earned last weekend.

The Joburg Open tees off on Thursday.