The 2023 US Open winner will take home a whopping $3,600,000 from a $20 million purse

Whether it's Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy or someone else, the US Open winner will be taking home an impressive amount of money. Whoever tops the leaderboard will win $3.6 million, which comes from a massive $20 million US Open prize purse.

As LIV Golf has come into the picture and funneled a lot of money into the sport, the prize purses the PGA Tour offers for their events have come under scrutiny. In response, several tournaments (including the majors) have upped their total purses.

The Masters increased its total money to $18 million. The PGA Championship's was moved to $17.5 million. Even the Players Championship jumped all the way to $25 million.

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US Open prize purse grew, but who will take the money?

As for which golfer will take home the US Open's $3.6 million ultimate prize, it's anyone's tournament right now.

As it stands, world number one Scottie Scheffler is the favorite, but there are several who could make a run for the money:

• Scottie Scheffler +600
• Jon Rahm +1000
• Brooks Koepka +1100
• Rory McIlroy +1200
• Patrick Cantlay +1600
• Viktor Hovland +1600
• Xander Schauffele +1800
• Jordan Spieth +2000
• Cameron Smith +2800
• Max Homa +2800
• Matt Fitzpatrick +2800
• Tyrrell Hatton +3000
• Tony Finau +3300
• Collin Morikawa +3500
• Dustin Johnson +3500
• Justin Rose +3500
• Hideki Matsuyama +4000
• Bryson DeChambeau +4000
• Tommy Fleetwood +4000
• Justin Thomas +4500
• Jason Day +4500
• Cameron Young +4500
• Rickie Fowler +4500

Mike Whan, the CEO of the USGA, said via the Washington Times:

“In general for us, we want this to be big. We have to find the right balance of bigness in terms of where we play it, how we televise it, how many people we let on this golf course. I think purse is part of that.”

Golf is growing bigger all the time, and LIV Golf's role in that can't be denied. What they've done to golf often can't be quantified, but it's easy to see the increase in PGA Tour prize money since they've been around. That increase may only continue once the merger goes through.

Mike Whan discussed the US Open's money increase

Whan also said:

“We understand that purses can be relative, and in order to be big we have to understand what else is going on in the world, and we do. We’re not in a chase to be the biggest check, but we want to make sure that the money and the opportunity here, whether they’re a tour player, college player, amateur, how they got here, that’s still part of the bigness, and we believe it is.”

He believes the growth in funding is a response to the state of the world and that the PGA Tour isn't interested in enticing players solely through the money they can earn on it.

Regardless, several golfers are going to come away with a nice payday following this weekend's festivities. Tee times have already begun and it is a very tight leaderboard as of now with Xander Schauffele tied for the lead at three under.