Who Was The Highest Earning LIV Golfer In 2023?

The circuit once again handed out plenty of money in 2023, but one player banked more than anyone

Talor Gooch at LIV Golf Andalucia
Talor Gooch claimed over $36m in the 2023 LIV Golf League season
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mike Hall
By Mike Hall
published

The inaugural LIV Golf season saw Dustin Johnson emerge the highest earner from its eight tournaments, eventually surpassing $35m.

The expanded 2023 League season, with six more events, promised the potential for an even more impressive figure for its leading player, but who was the highest earner, and how much did he claim?

Most would have backed one of LIV Golf's biggest stars, such as Johnson, a rejuvenated Bryson DeChambeau, former World No.1 Brooks Koepka or 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith, to claim the most money from the 2023 season.

In the end, though, the honour went to a player with a considerably lower profile. Until 2023 Talor Gooch was perhaps best known for his three-shot win in the 2021 RSM Classic. However, a stellar season that saw the Range Goats GC player claim three victories and one runner-up finish gave him a year to remember - and swelled his bank balance enormously.

Big paydays of $4m came Gooch’s way after each of his three victories, in Adelaide, Singapore and Andalucia, helping take him past $15m before the final regular event of the season in Saudi Arabia. Gooch was edged out in a playoff by Brooks Koepka in that tournament, but despite that disappointment, his runner-up finish still banked him another $2.25m, taking his earnings to $17,320,012.

He was far from done there, though. The event also saw Gooch crowned individual champion for the season, an achievement that earned him another one-off payment of $18m, taking his earnings for the year to $35,320,012 heading into the season-closing Team Championship.

Talor Gooch with the trophy after the Team Championship at Trump National Doral

Talor Gooch won $18m for finishing top of the season's individual standings

(Image credit: Getty Images)

There was $50m up for grabs at Trump National Doral. Gooch’s team finished runner-up at the event, meaning it claimed $8m. Nowadays, the majority of team earnings are reinvested into the franchises, but there was still another payday for its players, with 40% of the prize money, or $3.2m in the case of Range Goats GC, shared equally among captain Bubba Watson, Gooch, Thomas Pieters and Harold Varner III.

That handed Gooch an extra $800,000, taking his total earnings for the season to a staggering $36,120,012. Not bad for a player who, before joining LIV Golf, had taken career earnings of $9,250,299 in 123 appearances on the PGA Tour.

Mike Hall
Mike Hall
News Writer

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.

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