Rory McIlroy close to leaving Jordan Spieth very red-faced as earnings now stand at £7m

Rory McIlroy is leading the PGA Tour prize money list by a significant margin after an impressive start to 2025. The Northern Irish golfer pocketed another £266,000 ($337,843) for his T5 finish at the Houston Open over the weekend.

has already claimed two titles this year, starting with his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and followed by his victory at the Players Championship earlier this month. The latter triumph earned him a staggering £3.54m ($4.5m), bringing his total for 2025 to just over £7million ($9m). Interestingly, McIlroy's current earnings are on the verge of surpassing combined winnings since the 2022/23 season.

Three-time major champion Spieth hasn't had a win on the since his RBC Heritage victory in April 2022. He finished that season with £5.70m ($7.24m), ranking him 17th on the PGA money list that year.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

However, Spieth has struggled in subsequent seasons, partly due to injuries, and his wait for another win continues. The former US Open champion made £2.15m ($2.732m) last year, with his best performance at a major being his T25 finish at The Open in July.

Spieth's earnings have dipped slightly below the tour average of £662,000 ($841,000), with his prize money for the first quarter of the year reaching £645,000 ($820,000). This means that since the 2022/23 season, Spieth has accumulated a combined £8.5m ($10.8m), a total McIlroy could soon exceed with his annual prize money if his successful start to the season persists.

McIlroy is not merely making birdies, but he's also raking in the big bucks. Since the 2022/23 season, the ace has pocketed a cool £26.1m ($33.8m), starting with £10.7m ($13.9m) and followed by another £8.3m ($10.8m) last year.

McIlroy, 35, is easily out-earning his peers this year, sitting a hefty £2.6m ($3.4m) above Russell Henley, who trails behind in second after clinching victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

On the PGA's prestigious all-time money list, McIlroy's amassed career earnings of £77.2m ($100m) plant him firmly in second place, though he's still trailing over £15m ($20m) behind the legendary Tiger Woods. Meanwhile, Spieth currently holds eighth place with earnings of £49m ($63.5m).

Despite 43 tournament wins under his belt, Rory hasn't triumphed at a major since 2014, but that might change with the upcoming Masters starting on Thursday, April 10. "I'm obviously playing well," McIlroy said to .

"I want to keep playing well. So I think every round you play, where you see good things, you're sort of filling up that confidence bucket a little bit. So I want to see that."

Though he's yet to don the coveted green jacket, placing second in 2022, McIlroy is heading to Augusta with high expectations. However, he has admitted to carrying a niggle, which has caused concern among his fanbase.

"My right elbow has been bothering me a little bit," he confessed to NBC Sports. "So maybe just get some treatment on that and make sure that's ok going into Augusta.

"But I've got my coach Michael Bannon coming in tomorrow, we'll do some work and just make sure that everything's in good shape for a week's time."