With $62 million earned on course this year, Scottie Scheffler blows...

In the current Major League Baseball season, the sport’s biggest star, Shohei Ohtani, has already played 134 games for the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, and he’s having a campaign for the ages. He’s tied for second in the NL in home runs (44), third in RBIs (98) and eighth in hits (155). He also recently became only the sixth member of the 40/40 club with 40 homers and 40 stolen bases.

And in one money-earnings category, the athlete with the largest contract in sports is the only one making more per season than a pro golfer did in 2024, which provides perspective into just how remarkable a year it’s been for Scottie Scheffler and his bank account.

Shohei Ohtani has a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. Christian Petersen

Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in the offseason, with a per-season salary of $2 million and $68 million in “deferred” payments. It all adds up to $70 million a year. On Sunday, Scheffler capped a seven-win PGA Tour season by capturing the Tour Championship and the $25 million FedEx Cup bonus that goes with it, which brought his total season earnings to $62.2 million.

Now, we understand that earnings comparisons can get tricky. Athletes often are paid unreported bonuses, and there are endorsement contacts that sometimes pay more than the in-competition earnings. In team sports, the stars’ contracts are guaranteed—a security pro golfers don’t enjoy, though they have much longer careers. But that aside, there’s still the mind-boggling consideration for what a single golfer was able to make by playing 75 total rounds over nine months of competition, and how that compares to other stars in various sports.

Breaking down Scheffler’s year—the second-best in the modern era in terms of wins behind Tiger Woods’ eight in 2008—he made $29.2 million in what the PGA Tour considers “official” prize money, while $25 million came from the bonus pool. But the latter earning is indeed tied to results, since Scheffler would have earned half that if he’d finished second at East Lake.

If only the $29 million were counted as Scheffler’s earnings, he wouldn’t come close to ranking among the top 15 highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL, according to Front Office Sports. But with the playoffs bonus? He made more in 2024 than every pro QB. Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence and Green Bay’s Jordan Love all are set to make $55 million this season. Clearly, no one gets paid more per appearance than QBs.

In baseball, Scheffler would rank No. 2 behind Ohtani for salary. Pitchers are most coveted, but Justin Verlander (Houston) and Max Scherzer (Texas) will make considerably less than Scottie at $43.3 million. The highest-paid field player is the Yankees’ Aaron Judge at $40 million.

The NBA’s most avid golfer and best-paid player, Golden State’s Steph Curry, is set to make $55 million in 2024-25, and he played 74 games in the 2023-24 season. The NHL lags far behind in pay, so Scheffler blows away its top guy, Toronto’s Auston Matthews ($13.25 million).

Disclaimer here: International soccer players apparently are paid with Monopoly money. Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly making $200 million a year to play in Saudi Arabia, though “only” $75 million of that is said to be for his play. Outside of the kingdom, French superstar Kylian Mbappé is earning $124 million per season at Real Madrid.

Of course, individual sports are a more apples-to-apples comparison, and in that realm, only one person comes close to Scheffler this year—Formula One’s Max Verstappen, who’s making $55 million with Red Bull Racing. In NASCAR, Kyle Busch has the best salary with Richard Childress Racing at $16.9 million.

Tennis doesn’t approach golf in earnings. On the men’s side, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz has won two Grand Slam titles this season and earned $8 million with more results to come. (That would put him ninth on the PGA Tour’s final money list for the year.) On the WTA, Poland’s Iga Swiatek has made $6.9 million.

Getting back to golf, Scheffler’s earnings this year probably cause old-timers in the game to laugh, cry or both. Tiger Woods made $5.7 million in that eight-win season of ’08, and there’s Jack Nicklaus, who cashed $9.1 million in his entire career.

Main image: Kevin C. Cox