A substantial fortune was at stake this week during the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational, marking the conclusion of the PGA Tour season’s third major tournament held at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. Seventy-two competitors gathered at Arnie’s Venue, where the competition featured a prize pool of $20 million, including a $4 million reward specifically for the golfer who claimed first place, Akshay Bhatia.
Bhatia secured his inaugural signature event triumph and his third overall win on the PGA Tour, achieving the distinction of being the eighth individual ever to claim victory in his initial three tournaments through playoff rounds.
In contrast to certain other prominent tournaments, participation did not assure financial compensation for all contestants at the Arnold Palmer Invitational; the participant pool was narrowed down to the leading 50 players and any tied scores (plus those finishing within ten shots of the frontrunner) after 36 holes. Rory McIlroy was not one of those who advanced, having pulled out on Saturday due to back spasms. (McIlroy anticipates being fit enough to compete in The Players event scheduled for the following week.)
Aside from Bhatia’s winnings, his victory extended a sequence of 11 distinct champions across signature events. Each golfer finishing within the top eleven positions this week received more than $500,000, and all competitors ranked in the top twenty-four took home a minimum of $200,000.
As the Arnold Palmer Invitational holds the status of a player-organized invitational tournament – akin to both the Genesis Invitational and the Memorial – the champion’s financial reward is somewhat higher than the amounts distributed at typical signature events.
Below are the victors from the 2026 signature events to date:
- Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Collin Morikawa ($3.6 million)
- Genesis Invitational: Jacob Bridgeman ($4 million)
- Arnold Palmer Invitational: Akshay Bhatia ($4 million)
We will now examine the complete allocation of earnings for each final position at the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational prize money, purse
Total purse: $20 million
1st: $4,000,000 — Akshay Bhatia
2nd: $2,200,000 — Daniel Berger
3rd: $1,400,000 — Ludvig Åberg, Cameron Young
4th: $1,000,000
5th: $840,000 — Collin Morikawa
6th: $760,000 — Sahith Theegala, Russell Henley, Min Woo lee
7th: $700,000
8th: $646,000
9th: $600,000 — Rickie Fowler, Harry Hall
10th: $556,000
11th: $514,000 — Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth
12th: $472,000
13th: $430,000 — Billy Horschel, Si Woo Kim, Maverick McNealy, Viktor Hovland, Sepp Straka
14th: $389,000
15th: $369,000
16th: $349,000
17th: $329,000
18th: $309,000 — Jacob Bridgeman, Jhonattan Vegas, Bud Cauley, Chris Gotterup
19th: $289,000
20th: $269,000
21st: $250,000
22nd: $233,000
23rd: $216,000
24th: $200,000 — Robert MacIntyre, Lucas Glover, Ryan Fox, Nicolai Hojgaard, Harris English, Scottie Scheffler, Alex Noren, Patrick Rodgers, Xander Schauffele
25th: $184,000
26th: $168,000
27th: $161,000
28th: $154,000
29th: $147,000
30th: $140,000
31st: $133,000
32nd: $126,000 — Keith Mitchell, Corey Conners, Michael Kim, Ryo Hisatsune, Michael Thorbjornsen
33rd: $119,000
34th: $114,000
35th: $109,000
36th: $104,000
37th: $99,000
38th: $94,000 — Nick Taylor, Taylor Pendrith, Andrew Novak
39th: $90,000
40th: $86,000
41st: $82,000 — Hideki Matsuyama, Matt McCarty, Matt Fitzpatrick,
42nd: $78,000
43rd: $74,000
44th: $70,000 — Taylor Moore, Andrew Putnam, Nico Echavarria
45th: $66,000
46th: $62,000
47th: $58,000 — Chris Kirk
48th: $56,000 — Tommy Fleetwood
49th: $54,000 — Bryan Harman
