The winner of this year's Open Championship at Royal Troon will take home £1.175M ($1.5M), a rise of £25,000 ($32,300) on '15, according to Chris Cutmore of the London DAILY MAIL. Total prize money for The Open, which starts on Thursday, will be £6.5M ($8.4M), an increase of £200,000 ($258,600). But "while the headline figures are higher, the slump in the value of the pound following the leave result in the referendum on Britain's EU membership means that players from outside the UK will be taking home less money than last year." Last year's champion, Zach Johnson, received £1.15M "when he won the
event at St. Andrews." The runner-up will receive £675,000 ($872,700)
and the third-placed player £433,000 ($560,000), down to £15,000
($19,400) for 70th. Taking the value of the pound against the U.S. dollar last July, Johnson took around $1.8M "back across the Atlantic with him." But after the pound hit a 31-year low against the dollar on Tuesday, "any American winner of the Claret Jug next week would claim" around £1.5M ($1.9M) -- and "less if the pound falls further." R&A CEO Martin Slumbers said, "The Open is one of the world's great sporting events and it is important that this is reflected in the prize fund. We want to continue to attract the world's best golfers to compete in the Championship each year and to enhance its global appeal" (DAILY MAIL, 7/6).
