Aussie star Cameron Smith among players wiped from PGA Tour history as all-time highest earners revealed
Updated . First published
Wiped from history
Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith, and Dustin Johnson have individually been three of golf's big names of the past decade or two.
Aussie star Smith was on top of the world in 2022 when he won The Players and then the British Open.
A few weeks later he defected from the Tour and joined LIV Golf. While the move has been very lucrative, it seems it also caused him to be wiped from the PGA Tour record books.
On the Tour's official website is a list of all-time prize money earners. Smith should be 49th on the list. Mickelson should be third, and Johnson fourth.
Instead, according to the PGA Tour they never played the circuit. Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia are also top-20 money earners on the PGA Tour but are nowhere to be seen.
Nonetheless, here is the Tour's top 20 all-time money earners (including those who have been officially wiped)...
No.20 | Ernie Els - $49,385,600
The Big Easy grew up in South Africa playing rugby, cricket and tennis, and didn't pick up a golf club until he was eight.
He was off scratch by 14, and beat Phil Mickelson to the 1984 Junior World Golf Championship.
He turned pro in 1989 and made his debut the following year. He has 19 career PGA Tour wins, and four Majors.
He won the US Open in 1994 and 1997, and the British Open in 2002 and 2012.
No.19 | Patrick Cantlay - $50,452,976
Cantlay is far from the most popular player on tour given his penchant for slow play, which often holds up his own group and those behind him on the course.
He has eight PGA Tour wins since joining in 2012 but has not tasted victory since the 2022 BMW Championship.
No.18 | Rickie Fowler - $51,071,908
The loveable American is one of the most popular players on tour - but unfortunately he very rarely wins.
Fowler has won only six times on the PGA Tour and has 83 top-10 finishes but his career prize money comes from longevity - he has played 351 events since turning pro in 2009.
His 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic victory was his first on tour in four years.
No.17 | Jon Rahm - $52,055,684
The Spanish champion was the toast of the Tour when he won the 2023 Masters.
He rivalled Scottie Scheffler as the best player in the world at the time.
Rahm dropped a bombshell at the end of 2023 by signing with LIV Golf for a reported $900m bonus.
No.16 | Sergio Garcia - $54,433,395
Garcia was the low amateur at the 1999 Masters, and turned pro immediately after.
He won in just his sixth professional tournament - the Irish Open on the European Tour.
He's now made 402 starts for 11 wins on the PGA Tour. He won the Masters in a playoff against Justin Rose in 2017.
He resigned his PGA Tour membership and defected to LIV Golf in May 2022 after an altercation with a rules official at the Wells Fargo Championship.
He has since been wiped from the PGA Tour's website.
No.15 | Xander Schauffele - $57,561,393
He was the breakout star of 2024 and would have been spoken about more if it wasn't for Scottie Scheffler's career season on tour.
Schauffele won both the PGA Championship and The Open in what was an outstanding year. He has nine PGA Tour wins already and doesn't look like slowing down any time soon.
No.14 | Hideki Matsuyama - $59,887,078
The Japanese star stunned golf in 2021 by taking out The Masters.
He has since added five more wins to take his tally on the PGA Tour to 11 since turning pro in 2013.
He has 65 top-10 finishes besides that, and has filled his pockets in doing so.
No.13 | Matt Kuchar - $60,438,621
Kuchar is another PGA Tour stalwart, he's played basically a full time program every year since he went full time in 2002.
He has just nine wins, but he's had 28 further top-threes and 118 top-10s.
He has also never won a major.
No.12 | Justin Thomas - $61,976,664
Thomas made his PGA Tour debut as an amateur in 2009 at the tender age of 16, and became the third-youngest player to ever make the cut of a Tour event.
He turned pro in 2013. His breakout year came in 2017, winning five PGA Tour events and the FedEx Cup.
He's won the PGA Championship twice - in 2017 and 2022.
His 2022 PGA Championship victory was his most recent. It has been a lean few years since.
