US Open Prize Money: Golf Purse and Tennis Payouts

There are two US Opens, and they pay very differently. The 2026 U.S. Open golf championship carried a record $22.5 million purse with $4,500,000 to winner Wyndham Clark. The 2025 US Open tennis championships carried a record $90 million prize fund with $5,000,000 each to singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka. Tennis pays a far deeper field, including doubles and qualifying rounds, and has paid men and women equally since 1973.

Figures below are from the 2026 U.S. Open golf championship at Shinnecock Hills (June 2026) and the 2025 US Open tennis championships at Flushing Meadows, the most recent completed edition of each. The 2026 tennis championships begin on 30 August 2026 and the USTA confirms its prize money breakdown shortly beforehand.

US Open golf or US Open tennis? The quick answer

	U.S. Open (golf)	US Open (tennis)
Run by	USGA	USTA
Most recent completed edition	June 2026, Shinnecock Hills	September 2025, Flushing Meadows
Total prize fund	$22,500,000	$90,000,000
Champion’s cheque	$4,500,000	$5,000,000 (each singles title)
Players paid	72	Every main-draw and qualifying entrant
Equal pay for men and women	Separate championships	Yes, since 1973

The golf championship is a 156-player, 72-hole stroke play event with a 36-hole cut. The tennis championship is two 128-player singles draws plus doubles and mixed doubles, which is why its total prize fund is four times larger while its champion’s cheque is only slightly bigger.

How much is the U.S. Open golf purse and what does the winner get?

The 2026 purse was $22,500,000 and Wyndham Clark took $4,500,000, exactly 20% of the pot. It was a $1 million rise on 2025 and put the U.S. Open level with the Masters as the richest major.

Clark had also won the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, when the purse was $20 million and the winner’s share $3.6 million. Sam Burns was runner-up at Shinnecock for $2,430,000 and Tom Kim third for $1,532,530. Every professional who missed the cut received $10,000.

What is the full 2026 U.S. Open golf payout?

Seventy-two players were paid. The USGA averages the money across tied positions, which is why the published sheet lists groups rather than a clean 1-to-72 ladder.

Finish	Payout per player
1st	$4,500,000
2nd	$2,430,000
3rd	$1,532,530
T4	$920,882
T7	$617,090
T11	$405,862
T17	$280,966
22nd	$230,220
T23	$181,101
T32	$128,756
T39	$101,859
T43	$72,592
T53	$51,467
T56	$48,625
T61	$47,242
T63	$46,551
T65	$44,938
71st	$43,324
72nd	$42,863

Missed cut: $10,000 per professional.

Two things stand out. Last place was worth $42,863, close to 1% of the winner’s cheque for four days of work. And the sheet skips several position numbers, because five amateurs completed 72 holes at Shinnecock and were listed in the standings without receiving anything.

Recent purse history:

Year	Venue	Total purse	Winner’s share	Champion
2022	The Country Club	$17,500,000	$3,150,000	Matt Fitzpatrick
2023	Los Angeles CC	$20,000,000	$3,600,000	Wyndham Clark
2024	Pinehurst No. 2	$21,500,000	$4,300,000	Bryson DeChambeau
2025	Oakmont	$21,500,000	$4,300,000	J.J. Spaun
2026	Shinnecock Hills	$22,500,000	$4,500,000	Wyndham Clark

How much is US Open tennis prize money?

The 2025 US Open paid a record $90 million, a 20% rise on the $75 million paid in 2024 and, when the USTA announced it, the largest prize fund any tennis tournament had offered. The men’s and women’s singles champions each received $5,000,000, up almost 39% year on year.

That jump was much steeper than the rise in the total pot, because the USTA weighted the increase towards the later rounds. A semi-finalist went from roughly $1 million to $1,260,000, while a first-round loser went to $110,000.

US Open tennis singles prize money, round by round

Identical for the men’s and women’s draws. Losing at any stage still pays.

Round reached	Prize money
Winner	$5,000,000
Runner-up	$2,500,000
Semi-finals	$1,260,000
Quarter-finals	$660,000
Round of 16	$400,000
Round of 32	$237,000
Round of 64	$154,000
Round of 128 (first round)	$110,000

Qualifying round reached	Prize money
Final qualifying round	$57,200
Second qualifying round	$41,800
First qualifying round	$27,500

The first-round figure is the important one. A player ranked around 100 in the world who loses in the first round earns $110,000 for a single match, and a player who loses in the first round of qualifying still earns $27,500. Golf has no equivalent. Fail to qualify for the U.S. Open golf championship and you are paid nothing, which is a structural difference between the two sports that the shared name hides.

US Open doubles and mixed doubles prize money

Doubles money is paid per team and split between the two players. In 2025 all three doubles titles were worth $1,000,000 per team for the first time.

Round reached	Doubles (per team)	Mixed doubles (per team)
Winner	$1,000,000	$1,000,000
Runner-up	$500,000	$400,000
Semi-finals	$250,000	$200,000
Quarter-finals	$125,000	$100,000
Third round	$75,000	n/a
Second round	$45,000	n/a
First round	$30,000	$20,000

Mixed doubles was restructured for 2025 into a 16-team event, which is why its ladder is shorter. A team that loses its opening mixed doubles match receives $20,000, or $10,000 a player.

Do men and women get equal prize money at the US Open?

Yes, and the US Open was the first Grand Slam to do it. Equal prize money arrived in 1973, when John Newcombe and Margaret Court each received $25,000.

The year before, Ilie Nastase had been paid $25,000 for the men’s title while Billie Jean King received $10,000 for the women’s. King lobbied the USTA and threatened a boycott, and the change followed. The other three Grand Slams took decades to catch up: the Australian Open reached parity in 2001 and Wimbledon and the French Open only in 2007.

Golf has no equivalent single-event comparison, because the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens are separate championships run in different weeks by the same governing body, each with its own purse. That structural difference is why the equal-pay argument tennis settled 53 years ago is still live in golf.

Two very different money models

The tennis US Open spreads $90 million across hundreds of players in a fortnight at a site whose main court, Arthur Ashe Stadium, holds close to 24,000, a small figure next to the biggest stadiums in the United States. The golf U.S. Open concentrates $22.5 million on 72 finishers over four days at a private club with no permanent seating at all.

Neither model is more generous, they are answering different questions. Tennis is paying for a workforce that has no salary and no guaranteed starts. Golf is paying for a leaderboard. The same tension shapes the payout schedule at the PGA Championship, which pays more players than any other major precisely because so many club professionals are in the field. More breakdowns are in our prize money guides.