American Football
Justin Thomas joins elite PGA Tour company after $1 million runner-up at The American Express
Justin Thomas made PGA Tour history with his strong finish at The American Express in California.
Even though Justin Thomas finished two back of Sepp Straka at The American Express, the two-time PGA Championship winner made PGA Tour history.
Cha-ching! With his $959,200 payday, Thomas became only the 11th player to earn more than $60 million during his career, per Brentley Romine of the Golf Channel. Thomas now sits 10th on the all-time career money list, surpassing Matt Kuchar thanks to his runner-up finish in Palm Springs.
- Tiger Woods, $120,999,166
- Rory McIlroy, $90,989,348
- Scottie Scheffler, $71,793,586
- Jim Furyk, $71,507,269
- Vijay Singh, $71,281,216
- Adam Scott, $68,248,165
- Justin Rose, $64,878,042
- Jordan Spieth, $62,741,970
- Jason Day, $61,731,563
- Justin Thomas, $60,827,898
- Matt Kuchar, $60,335,682
Considering how massive purses on the PGA Tour have become, this list encompasses players who thrived at some point during the 21st century. Unsurprisingly, Tiger Woods holds the clubhouse lead, while Rory McIlroy is about $30 million behind the 15-time major winner. Scottie Scheffler is then third, but his career winnings have received a tremendous boost as a result of Signature Events — the $20 million events the PGA Tour created in recent years to guarantee the best players compete alongside each other while thwarting the threat of LIV Golf.
Thomas can climb this list even higher should he play well in these Signature Events this season. He is trending in that direction too. His solo second this week marked his best result since May 2022, when he defeated Will Zalatoris in a playoff at Southern Hills. He also finished second to Scheffler at the Hero World Challenge last month, but that 20-man exhibition in the Bahamas is not considered an official PGA Tour event. Before that, Thomas tied for second in Japan at the ZOZO Championship.
Yet, after shooting a bogey-free 66 on Sunday, Thomas said he did not have his ‘best stuff’ this week. Despite that comment, Thomas ranked among the top 22 in all strokes gained metrics and gained 7.640 strokes overall, which tied for fifth among the field.
“I had a chance. It wasn’t obviously a great one on the back nine, but I was proud of myself, I did what I needed to do on the front nine today and at least be making some noise and kind of moving up the leaderboard,” Thomas said.
“Obviously it was unfortunate to kind of stall there after 11, really, really played some great golf today, hit some really good shots, made some great putts and hit some great putts too that didn’t go in… I feel like I managed everything really well and got it around well, only two bogeys all week, but, yeah, in a place like this you got to be pretty sharp all around, and I’ll just keep building.”
When Thomas arrived on the 12th hole — a short 346-yard par-4 — he had just made his sixth birdie of the day on 11 and was hungry for more. But a 15-footer for birdie there slipped past the hole and Thomas went on to make six more pars after that, stalling out as he alluded to.
“Just keep doing what I’m doing; I don’t need to change or do anything different; just keep building, keep working, tighten some things up,” Thomas said on what he has to do to get over the hump and win.
“I feel like my wedge game has not been anything close to my level of what I like it being. So, yeah, just keep honing in on that and work because we have a big stretch here coming up that I’m excited about.”
Thomas is not in the field at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines but will tee it up the following week at Pebble Beach for the second Signature Event of the season. Should he win there, not only will he receive a healthy dose of confidence, but he will also move further up the career winnings list with a $4 million payday.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.