Billy Horschel: From golfing rags to riches

American journeyman Billy Horschel has outplayed the best golfers in the world in the last month.

Three weeks ago Horschel finished in a tie for second behind another youngster Chris Kirk, banking $597,000. Last week he won the BMW and the $1.44 million that went with it.

And on Monday the 28-year-old won the Tour Championship and the $1.44 million prize-money, and topped that with the $10 million bonus for taking out the coveted FedExCup.

All up in three weeks he’s pulled in US$13,477,000, or a cool $14,949,530 in Australian dollars.

Not bad for a journeyman whose wife Brittany is about to give birth to their first child, a daughter, who has already been named Scarlett.

Those are serious figures, but the enormity is living proof of how far golf has come with blanket television of the USPGA and European tours week by week, and the majors. Horschel has only been around as a pro since 2009, yet he is ranked 188th among the career prize-money leaders with $9,335,064 – the $10 million bonus isn’t counted as prize-money for some unknown reason.

Tiger Woods tops the career list with $109,612,414, with Phil Mickelson second on $75,208,510.

Three Australians are well to the fore – Adam Scott’s 10th with $37,297,653, Stuart Appleby 19th with $29,204,533, closely followed at 21st by Geoff Ogilvy’s $28,440,710.

The latter part of Greg Norman’s career was covered by a lot of television, so he’s 92nd on the career list with $14,424,458.

But the legends of golf were born far too early to figure prominently in these stats. The greatest of them all Jack Nicklaus, with the record 18 majors among his 73 USPGA victories, that included 19 times runner-up in majors, lies 132nd on the list with $5,734,031.

Tom Watson (65), with eight majors among his 39 PGA victories, is 132nd with $11,069,517. Lee Trevino (74), with six majors among his 29 PGA successes, is 300th with $3,478,328. Arnold Palmer (85), with seven majors among his 63 PGA wins, is 382nd on the career list with $1,861,857, while Gary Player (78), nine majors among the 165 wins worldwide, is 386th with $1,834,482.

But the legends earned a “fortune” compared to Sammy Snead, the proud owner of the sweetest golf swing ever seen.

Snead died at 89 in 2002 after a pro career that began in 1934 and finished in 1987. In that time “Slammin’ Sammy” won seven majors and 82 wins on the USPGA tour, which is still the record.

And for his superb career, Sam Snead earned a career $826,028.

If there had been a single runner-up at the Tour Championship he would have earned $864,000 for four days’ work. Billy Horschel is laughing all the way to the bank, and good luck to him.