Daniel Berger made $50,500 for hitting one shot before withdrawing from the WGC-Bridgestone

Berger took home a lot for doing very little

We all know that the money available at the top tier of golf is little short of ludicrous. Win a PGA Tour event and you’ll likely take home a cheque for over $1 million. If it’s a big tournament, your prize could be almost double that. 

The prize for finishing last at this week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational was set at $50,500. That may seem a lot for coming last, but it seems even more generous when you realise that Daniel Berger picked up that cheque for hitting just a single shot. 

Berger hit his opening tee shot and then immediately withdrew with a pre-existing shoulder injury. 25-year-old Berger originally injured his shoulder last week, but had to turn up and start the WGC-Bridgestone in order to be eligible for prize money. 

Berger’s $50,500 for one shot may well be the best pounds-per-shot result in the history of golf. When Jason Day took home a whopping $1.9 million for winning this year’s Players Championship, the tournament with the biggest prize fund in golf, he’d taken a total of 273 shots across the four days. That works out at $6,959.71 per shot, making Berger’s shot more than seven times more profitable than each one of Day’s. 

World number 32 Berger may have made the easiest money of his life, but at least his withdrawal didn’t cost another player a chance of a start. The WGC-Bridgestone has a field of 61 players, with no halfway cut and no alternates for withdrawals.