The Byron Nelson Championship doesn't have the hefty purse of last week's Players Championship, but Sunday's winner will still take home more than $1 million dollars at the historic Dallas-Fort Worth event. This week's purse is $6.7 million and the winning payout is $1,170,000, maintaining the weekly $1 million standard that now exists on Tour (thanks in large part to Tiger Woods). By comparison, last week's winner at TPC took home $1.7 of a $9.5 million purse, the largest all season on the PGA Tour.
The stature of the Byron Nelson, along with next week's Colonial, has receded over the past decade, but some of the game's biggest names still make the annual trip to Texas. One of those stars is Keegan Bradley, who picked up his first ever career win here two years ago. Bradley went on to greater success, adding a major championship and WGC victory, as well as a Ryder Cup appearance to settle his standing as one of the best American players in the world. This week, he has a chance to win again at the Nelson, paced by a course-record opening round of 60.
Financially, however, Bradley has come a long way from that debut win two years ago. His career earnings total $9,579,058 and he's already made $1.4 million this year. His primary competition for the $1.17 million winner's share is Sang-Moon Bae, who's made $1.8 million in his career and nearly $400,000 this year. It would be a career highlight for Bae if he could close out Bradley. The Korean star jumped out to a four-shot lead at one point on the front side, but a double-bogey and bogey around the turn brought Bradley back into it on the back nine.
The wind is howling and making the final five holes at Four Seasons Las Colinas extremely difficult, so Bae will certainly have to earn this career payday coming into the house.