Xander Schauffele hits a shot on Saturday from a bunker on the 1st hole at Olympia Fields.
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How do you measure growth?
The question was asked to a few pros this week at the BMW Championship. The PGA Tour was playing its season’s penultimate event, so it was a time to reflect.
The answers were varied.
Said Matt Fitzpatrick: “I think you look at — well, that’s a tough question, asking me, but there’s probably a million ways to do it.
“I think you look at your strokes gained numbers. I think that’s probably the most telling. You could argue that you could probably win two or three times but have worse strokes gained numbers. You look at Scottie [Scheffler], for example — even though he’s probably not won as much as he’d like, he’s played unbelievable all season, and you can’t knock that, whereas I want to say I’ve won as many times as Scottie this year, which seems pretty bizarre.
“I think it’s measured more than just wins. Wins are nice, but for me, if I could consistently hit a strokes gained number throughout every single year, gradually improve, that’s the sign of improvement.”
Said Cameron Young: “I think it can be hard to in some ways, but I think just as far as — I think I’m better at being a professional golfer than I was a year ago, as far as the routines we go through in practice, the routines I go through in warmup. I think I’m doing more productive things at tournament weeks and at home golf-wise.
“I think I’m understanding my golf more and more, and I think it’s really hard to measure those things, but I know they’re there even if some of the results don’t really speak to that. Yeah, it’s just some very little things here and there.”
Said Wyndham Clark: “I would say like this year — I mean, this year a huge success would have been in my mind just getting better mentally to where I feel more comfortable on Thursday, Friday, Saturdays and Sundays, and handling adversity better, handling the tough pressure moments better, and then also enjoying the process a lot more. To me, that would have been a successful season.
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“That’s how I kind of judge my seasons. Whenever the wins happen, that’s great, and the results, but I’m really more focused on that stuff. Some years you can still do that and it not happen. and other years it’ll happen.”
Of course, you can also measure things another way:
Money.
With that, below is a complete list of the 2023 BMW Championship payouts for each player. The total purse is $20 million.
How much every player made at the 2023 BMW Championship
1. Viktor Hovland $3.6 million
2. $2.16 million
3. $1.36 million
4. $990,000
5. $830,000
6. $750,000
7. $695,000
8. $640,000
9. $600,000
10. $560,000
11. $520,000
12. $480,000
13. $441,000
14. $402,000
15. $382,000
16. $362,000
17. $342,000
18. $322,000
19. $302,000
20. $282,000
21. $262,000
22. $245,000
23. $229,000
24. $213,000
25. $197,000
26. $181,000
27. $174,000
28. $167,000
29. $160,000
30. $153,000
31. $146,000
32. $139,000
33. $132,000
34. $127,000
35. $122,000
36. $117,000
37. $112,000
38. $108,000
39. $104,000
40. $100,000
41. $96,000
42. $92,000
43. $88,000
44. $84,000
45. $80,000
46. $76,000
47. $72,000
48. $70,000
49. $68,000
50. Hideki Matsuyama $66,000
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