PGA Tour pro Min Woo Lee has tweeted a tongue-in-cheek claim about Jack Nicklaus after seeing the latest update on career earnings.
Jack Nicklaus may have won a record 18 major titles and to many be considered the greatest that has ever played the game, but he’s now been overtaken for estimated prize money on the PGA Tour by Scottie Scheffler’s caddie Ted Scott.
Even Min Woo Lee is now just some $100,000 behind golf legend Jack Nicklaus.
We just won’t mention inflation, or the fact the world’s best are now playing for hundreds of millions of dollars on the PGA Tour in 2024.
World No.1 Scheffler put the finishing touches to his incredible 2024 PGA Tour season with victory at the Tour Championship on Sunday.
The win saw him pick up the FedEx Cup and a PGA Tour record first prize of $25m.
It marked a seventh official win of his season, and an eighth overall if you count his Olympic gold medal in Paris last month.
To put the figure of $25m into perspective, Nicklaus won just $144,000 when he captured his 18th and final major title at the 1976 Masters.
Scheffler earned $29,228,357 in official prize money from PGA Tour events in 2024.
Counting the bonus earned at the Tour Championship, it brings his total earnings this season to $64,228,357.
Scheffler’s caddie Ted Scott is understood to have received close to 10% of all of that, meaning he has pocketed approximately $6m.
Scottie Scheffler with caddie Ted Scott
Scottie Scheffler with caddie Ted Scott
But the stats are the stats, and yes, even someone without a PGA Tour title to his name right now such as Min Woo Lee is just one more pay packet away from surpassing Nicklaus’ prize money on the circuit.
Lee, who is ranked 42nd in the world, could not hide his delight at seeing his name linked closely to Nicklaus on a latest financial update provided by Monday Q Info on X / Twitter.
Scroll below for Lee’s hilarious tweet…
I’m nearly as good as Jack Nicklaus!!!!!! https://t.co/9DVazHqfpQ
— Min Woo Lee (@Minwoo27Lee) September 2, 2024
Monday Q Info tweeted:
‘Career pga tour $ of the following players: Jack Nicklaus $5.7 million Ray Floyd- $5.8 million Fuzzy- $5.9 million Ted Potter- $6.1 million Min Woo Lee- $5.6 million. Estimated money made by caddie Ted Scott this season: $6.2 million’.
Lee jokingly replied:
‘I’m nearly as good as Jack Nicklaus!!!!!!’
Nicklaus, 84, won a record 18 major titles and a total of 73 PGA Tour titles, ranking him third in the all-time list behind Tiger Woods and Sam Snead (82).
He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Nicklaus’ net worth in 2024 is estimated to be over $400m.
Australian Lee has enjoyed a solid first full season on the PGA Tour in 2024, narrowly missing out on a place in the 30-man Tour Championship.
Although he has yet to register a first win on the circuit, he did twice finish runner-up at the Cognizant Classic and Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Lee is a three-time winner on the DP World Tour.
Scheffler has this season vaulted up to third in the all-time career earnings list behind Rory McIlroy in second and Tiger Woods in first.
You have to believe it won’t be long until Scheffler has toppled both of them on current form.
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