What You Get For Finishing 2nd At The Players Championship

The PGA Tour's flagship event, The Players Championship isn’t just one of the most prestigious events in the game, it offers an excellent opportunity for competitors to boost their careers thanks to the additional perks available compared to regular PGA Tour events.

The TPC Sawgrass tournament sits just beneath or, in some cases, level with the four Majors for a range of metrics, including world ranking and FedEx Cup points, while on one, prize money, it even offers more.

Little wonder that golf fans are generally divided on where it sits in golf’s tournament hierarchy, with some feeling it’s already a Major, and others considering it no more than a glorified Signature Event.

While that debate is set to run and run, even without official Major status, one thing is certain: The Players Championship is a big deal for competitors and fans alike.

Its status also means that, even for the player just missing out on the title, the perks are still more attractive than those at most other tournaments.

Here’s what you get for finishing second at the PGA Tour’s flagship event.

Prize Money

Regular PGA Tour events generally offer prize money between around $750,000 and $1m for the runner-up. Meanwhile, the Signature Events and Majors generally offer around $2m for any player finishing solo second.

However, thanks to the enormous overall purse of The Players Championship, which stands at $25m for the fourth consecutive year in 2026, the runner-up will earn $2.75m.

That’s still $1.75m less than the $4.5m the champion earns, but it’s considerably more than even the winner of many other PGA Tour events receives.

World Ranking Points

The runner-up will also benefit from more world ranking points than finishing in the same position at most other events.

In fact, only The Majors offer more than the TPC Sawgrass event. While The Masters, PGA Championship, US Open and The Open hand 100 points to the winner and 60 to the runner-up, at The Players, the winner earns 80, with the player in second scooping 48.

That compares very favorably even with the PGA Tour Signature events, where the runner-up can expect around 33-34 points.

FedEx Cup Points

Throughout the season, players jostle for positions in the FedEx Cup standings, with those in the top 70 after the Wyndham Championship making it to the first of three Playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

The good news for those competing in The Players Championship is that its FedEx Cup points distribution is identical to The Majors.

That means the winner will amass 750 points, but there’s a huge haul of 500 available to the runner-up, too.

That’s the same number that the winners of regular PGA Tour events receive, while it’s 100 more than the player finishing second at the Signature Events gets.

There’s a potential indirect benefit of earning so many points, too.

If not otherwise exempt, those 500 points will go a long way towards a place in Signature Event, the RBC Heritage. That’s thanks to the Aon Next 10, which awards a place to the top 10 FedEx Cup points earners through The Masters.

Presidents Cup Points

It’s a Presidents Cup year in 2026, with a team from the US taking on a team of Internationals at Medinah in September.

For players eligible for either team, The Players Championship offers one of the best ways to boost their chances of automatic qualification.

The top six in the respective team standings make the team automatically, with the US positions determined by FedEx Cup points earned between the 2025 Sentry and the 2026 BMW Championship.

Some PGA Tour events offer one Presidents Cup point per FedEx Cup point gained, while others hand out 1.5 points for every FedEx Cup point accumulated.

However, The Players, like the Majors, awards two points for each FedEx Cup point banked, meaning the runner-up will claim 1,000.

For the Internationals, it’s slightly different, with world ranking points the all-important factor, but that still means finishing second at The Players Championship is important, with 48 points going a long way to helping an eligible runner-up qualify.