CHA-CHING: Tiger and Phil Made Forbes Highest Earning Athletes List

With just a week left in the entire 2010s, Forbes took the opportunity to rank the highest-earning athletes in the world for the entire decade. And on that list, you’ll find 5 PGA TOUR pros.

Forbes calculated its list by taking multiple factors into account. Rather than only including what each athlete has earned from their professional contracts or exploits, they also included factors such as endorsements, appearance fees, and licenses. Knowing all of those factors, it isn’t hard to guess that the highest-earning golfers on the list are Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Obviously, the 2010s have been very up and down for Tiger, as he dealt with his personal issues off of the course and missed a lot of time. But Tiger still rules the golf world when it comes to endorsements and his licensing. Overall, Tiger earned a ridiculous $615 million this decade, which was good enough to land him in 6th place on the list.

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Lefty is sitting right behind Tiger on that list, making a lot less but still pulling in a crazy $480 million for the decade. Like Tiger, a lot of that comes from his endorsements, licensing, and appearance fees but he also has that big $9 million victory over Tiger in “The Match” which was the highest earnings either of the two had from an on-course event for the entire decade.

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The only athletes making more than these two were Floyd Mayweather, Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, and Roger Federer.

One golfer you might be surprised didn’t crack the top ten on this list is Rory McIlroy considering the deal with the PGA TOUR video games and his on-course dominance this decade but he is on the list for top earners in 2019. Joining those three on the highest-earning athletes for just 2019 are Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth.

These are certainly some interesting lists to look at and I highly suggest looking through all of Forbes’ highest-earning athlete lists if you’re interested. And with Tiger and Phil getting up there in age, it will be interesting to see what next generation of golfers will take their spots as golf’s highest earners in the coming decade.