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Forbes highest-paid athletes of 2018 list includes five golfers

By Brandon Raper

DUBLIN, OH - JUNE 03: Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the fifth hole during the final round of The Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 3, 2018 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
DUBLIN, OH - JUNE 03: Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the fifth hole during the final round of The Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 3, 2018 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Forbes highest paid athletes Justin Thomas
ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 24: Justin Thomas of the United States celebrates with the trophy on the 18th green after winning the FedExCup and second in the TOUR Championship during the final round at East Lake Golf Club on September 24, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /

Justin Thomas has enjoyed an incredible run over the past 12 months. The current top-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking also leads the FedEx Cup race nearing the mid-way point of the year. Not a bad way to live life.

Since June of 2017, Thomas has won four times, with an additional seven top-ten finishes on TOUR. That’s going to be a huge set of paydays in any year, but Thomas hit the jackpot at the end of the 2016-2017 PGA TOUR season.

I’m referring, of course, to the $10 million bonus that Thomas brought home for winning the FedEx Cup Playoff title. Even if he claimed he didn’t know whether or not it had been deposited to his bank account, it went a long way toward putting him on this list. In fact, he would have narrowly missed without it, as the cutoff for the top 100 was around $20 million.

Thomas is also the only golfer on this list who earned more on the course than he did in endorsement money last year. While he boasts some big-name sponsors in Polo Ralph Lauren, Titleist/FootJoy, and Citi, he only brought in an estimated $5 million from those deals.

Considering that Thomas is still a star on the rise in many ways, I expect these numbers to increase significantly in the year to come. Don’t be surprised to see him fight for a spot in the top 50 as soon as next year, with far more in his future.

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