OPEN CHAMPION SET FOR $1.8m prize payout

In a break with tradition, this year’s Open Championship winner will be paid in US dollars rather than sterling.

A fall in the value of the pound caused the Royal and Ancient Golf Club to consider the change.

R&A Chief executive Martin Slumbers said the move was because the US dollar is the ‘most widely adopted currency for prize money in golf’.

The 2017 event, which which takes place at Royal Birkdale from July 20-23, will see the winner will pick up $1.85m (£1.4m) from a prize pool of $10.25m (£7.9m).

In February, the R&A said that the fall in sterling’s value, which followed the vote to leave the European Union in June 2016, had made a ‘significant impact’ in driving the proposal to pay Open prize money in American currency. However, although the pound’s value dropped after the Brexit vote, it has strengthened against the dollar since the beginning of the year. A pound bought $1.29 on July 4, compared with $1.23 on January 1.

That means that if a British player wins the event and converts his winnings back into sterling, it will actually be worth around £60,000 less than it would have at the turn of the year.

The runner up will receive over a million dollars (1.067m), while the third will take home $684,000. The lowest finisher of those to make the cut will win $23,600 (70th), while the payout for a player that misses the cut will be between $7,200 and $4,850, depending on the final finishing place.