As it always tends to be, the 2025 Rocket Classic set up golf fans for a thrilling finish on the PGA Tour. Young Aldrich Potgieter stormed up the leaderboard on Friday and Saturday at 20 years old to find himself already in his third final group of the season. However, this time around, he was looking for a better finish and to ultimately end up taking home the winner's share of the $9.6 million purse on the line this week at Detroit Golf Club.
Potgieter held the 54-hole lead but had the likes of Jake Knapp — who shot the course record with his round on Friday to surge into contention at the Rocket Classic — Chris Kirk and several others all trying to chase him down. Early on, it seemed like the young South African might, unfortunately, falter again on Sunday. However, he put together a tremendous bit of fortitude to reinsert himself back in the fight.
While a PGA Tour win would be about more than the payout for someone like Potgieter, it also doesn't hurt as well. But how much money will the players in this field get for their finish after making the cut? Let's take a full look into the 2025 Rocket Classic payouts and prize money on the line this week, initially looking at the winner's share but also diving into the full payout distribution and how the purse has grown in recent years.
Rocket Classic purse 2025: Winner's prize money, total purse
The winner of the 2025 Rocket Classic will receive $1.728 million in prize money this week at Detroit Golf Club, the standard 18% of the $9.6 million total purse that we generally see on the PGA Tour. As I always tend to say, that might not look like a ton of money after last week's winner at a signature event, Keegan Bradley, took home $3.6 million. At the same time, though, when you consider the fact that the winner of an event with a weaker field such as this one in the Motor City also receives the 500 FedEx Cup points and invitations into major championships, it's about more than just the $1,728,000 and becomes about the doors open for more, even bigger future earnings.
Rocket Classic payouts distribution by finishing position in 2025
Finishing Position | Rocket Classic Prize Money |
|---|---|
Winner | $1.728 million |
2nd | $1.0464 million |
3rd | $662,400 |
4th | $470,400 |
5th | $393,600 |
6th | $348,000 |
7th | $324,000 |
8th | $300,000 |
9th | $280,000 |
10th | $261,600 |
11th | $242,400 |
12th | $223,200 |
13th | $204,000 |
14th | $184,800 |
15th | $175,200 |
16th | $165,600 |
17th | $156,000 |
18th | $146,400 |
19th | $136,800 |
20th | $127,200 |
21st | $117,600 |
22nd | $108,000 |
23rd | $100,320 |
24th | $92,640 |
25th | $84,960 |
26th | $77,280 |
27th | $74,400 |
28th | $71,520 |
29th | $68,640 |
30th | $65,760 |
31st | $62,880 |
32nd | $60,000 |
33rd | $57,120 |
34th | $54,720 |
35th | $52,320 |
36th | $49,920 |
37th | $47,520 |
38th | $45,600 |
39th | $43,680 |
40th | $41,760 |
41st | $39,840 |
42nd | $37,920 |
43rd | $36,000 |
44th | $34,080 |
45th | $32,160 |
46th | $30,240 |
47th | $28,320 |
48th | $26,784 |
49th | $25,440 |
50th | $24,672 |
51st | $24,096 |
52nd | $23,520 |
53rd | $23,136 |
54th | $22,752 |
55th | $22,560 |
56th | $22,368 |
57th | $22,176 |
58th | $21,984 |
59th | $21,792 |
60th | $21,600 |
61st | $21,408 |
62nd | $21,216 |
63rd | $21,024 |
64th | $20,832 |
65th | $20,640 |
66th | $20,448 |
67th | $20,256 |
68th | $20,064 |
69th | $19,872 |
70th | $19,680 |
71st | $19,488 |
72nd | $19,296 |
73rd | $19,104 |
74th | $18,912 |
75th | $18,720 |
76th | $18,528 |
77th | $18,336 |
78th | $18,144 |
79th | $17,952 |
80th | $17,760 |
81st | $17,568 |
82nd | $17,376 |
83rd | $17,184 |
84th | $16,992 |
85th | $16,800 |
86th | $16,608 |
As you can see, there were a ton of players who made the cut to play the weekend. It was looking like the cut was going to be at 7-under for the first 36 holes, but some late bogeys pushed the cut line back to 6-under, which let roughly 20 guys have a lifeline to play into the weekend. Even though that's not terribly abnormal, it is absolutely wild to see 86 players who made the cut this week in Detroit.
Because of that, we see the payouts get incredibly small at the bottom of the leaderboard, smaller than even normal weeks such as this. It's not often you start to see the prize money dip into the $16K range, but we have the 84-86th places on the leaderboard only taking that home. Don't let that diminish, however, that both the winner and runner-up clear seven figures this week while the Top 23 will all make at least $100K for the week's work.
Rocket Classic payouts for winners, list of champions over the last 5 years
Year and Champion | Winner's Payout | Total Purse |
|---|---|---|
2024: Cam Davis | $1.656 million | $9.2 million |
2023: Rickie Fowler | $1.584 million | $8.8 million |
2022: Tony Finau | $1.512 million | $8.4 million |
2021:Cam Davis | $1.35 million | $7.5 million |
2020: Bryson DeChambeau | $1.35 million | $7.5 million |
While golf fans are familiar with the influx of money into purses on the PGA Tour when it comes to things like signature events, we often don't think about it quite as much for events like the Rocket Classic. However, as you can clearly see here, that has been the case for these standard events on the tour as well.
Since Bryson DeChambeau's victory back in 2020 (and Cam Davis in his first win in Detroit the year after), the total purse has now increased by $2.1 million. That's a ton of money coming into the game at the highest level, and it goes to show the health of the sport as a whole, even with the fracturing that it's overall undergone.