Golf, motorsport and equestrian sport: three money registers compared
Three sports here publish money directly, and comparing them shows how much the details matter. Golf records official money per player per event and maintains the career total itself. Equestrian sport records prize money per rider per competition in the world federation’s own database. Motorsport published race purses as part of the official result, and then, in one series, stopped.
Other sports on file
- Danica Patrick Purse era Race payouts were published for most of her career
- Dustin Johnson ≈$81.6m Tour career money, from the published per-event money list
- Karl Cook FEI database Prize money published per competition by the world federation
- Kyle Busch Until 2015 Race purses were published through 2015, then stopped
Golf, motorsport and equestrian sport sit together here because each publishes money directly, and because their differences are instructive: one pays the competitor, one pays the team, and one records the money in a database open to anybody.
Who receives the money is as important as how much
In golf and equestrian sport the prize is paid to the competitor, which is why the published figure is close to personal earnings: before tax, coaching, travel and, in equestrian sport, an unusually heavy cost base.
In motorsport it is not. A race purse is generally paid to the entrant or team, and the driver’s share is a private contract term. Reading a published purse as driver income is the most common error in motorsport earnings reporting, and it can be off by any factor.
| Sport | What is published | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Golf | Official money per player per event, plus a career total | The player |
| Equestrian | Prize money per rider per competition, in the federation database | The rider, against heavy costs |
| Motorsport | Race purse and points fund per entry, where published | The entrant or team, not the driver |
What each of the three sports does not publish
Golf does not publish appearance fees, which some tournaments pay privately to secure a field, nor anything about equipment and apparel contracts. Equestrian sport does not publish the cost side, which in that sport can exceed the prize money by a wide margin. Motorsport does not publish a driver’s share of a purse, a retainer or a sponsorship agreement.
The pattern is consistent enough to state as a rule: a governing body publishes what it pays out and nothing about what a competitor pays in. That makes every published figure in this section a gross receipt, and it makes the net position unknowable from public sources.
A register can close
One of the series covered here published race payouts for decades and then withdrew them, partly because the figures were being misread as driver income. That gives a hard cut-off date: results before it carry a documented payout, results after it carry none.
It is a useful corrective to the assumption that disclosure only ever increases. Where a register closes, the honest response is to state the date rather than to fill the years afterwards with estimates.
Golf has its own version of the same problem. A player who moves to a circuit that does not publish per-event money stops accruing entries in the register that documented his career, so the most lucrative phase becomes the least documented one. That page prints the published half and names it rather than blending the two into one total.
Questions readers send
Do these three sports publish anything about costs?
No. Every register in this section records what a body paid out and nothing about what a competitor paid in: entries, horses, travel, staff and equipment are all private.
Why is a motorsport purse not the driver’s earnings?
Because it is paid to the entrant or team. The driver receives a contracted share, and that share is private.
Which of these registers is strongest?
The equestrian federation’s database is the most granular, recording prize money per rider per competition. Golf’s money list is the most complete for a single tour.
Is a golfer’s money list total the same as income?
No, in both directions. It excludes endorsements and appearance fees, which for a leading player are usually the larger part, and it is stated before the caddie’s share, travel and tax. It is a complete record of one thing, not a record of everything.
The registers behind this page
- 01 Governing bodies, leagues and commissions, That the figure quoted was published by the body that paid it, in the form described Each subject page names its register, the section within it and the year