Winning a Signature event – and his first PGA Tour title in nearly three years – put Justin Thomas back in the conversation in chasing Rory McIlroy for the lead on the Tour money list.
Thomas earned $3.6 million for his playoff victory over Andrew Novak on April 20 in the RBC Heritage, at the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, S.C. He jumped from 13th on the money list to second but is still about halfway to McIlroy’s total of $13,257,558.
McIlroy has won The Players, the Masters and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, worth nearly $12.5 million of that total. He will try to add more to his total this week when he and Shane Lowry will team up to defend their title in the Zurich Classic, the Tour’s only regular-season team event, at TPC Louisiana.
Who else moved up on PGA Tour money list?
Novak made $2.16 million for finishing second to Thomas and vaulted 18 spots from 29th to 11th, and passed $4 million for the season. Novak has easily passed his previous career high in earnings.
Russell Henley moved from fourth to third with his tie for eighth at Harbour Town and world No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler went from seventh to sixth and is on the verge of $5 million in earnings this year.
Who moved up at PGA Tour’s Corales event?
It was opposite the Signature Event at Harbour Town, but the Corales Puntacana Championship paid winner Garrick Higgo $720,000 and he oved up 85 spots to 79th on the money list with $842,945.
Five players tied for second in the Dominican Republic, and all earned $243,000 to move up the ladder. Michael Thorbjornssen made the biggest jump, from 170th to 132nd and Jeremy Paul went up 35 spots from 143rd to 108th.
Who are the PGA Tour money leaders?
(Through RBC Heritage, Corales Puntacana Championship)
1. Rory McIlroy $13,257,558 2. Justin Thomas $6,920,663 3. Russell Henley $6,223,775 4. Collin Morikawa $5,939,464 5. Ludvig Åberg $5,704,223 6. Scottie Scheffler $4,929,197 7. Maverick McNealy $4,808,051 8. J.J. Spaun $4,698,535 9. Hideki Matsuyama $4,674,913 10. Sepp Straka $4,559,617 11. Andrew Novak $4,258,205 12. Corey Conners $4,201,631 13. Justin Rose $4,119,619 14. Shane Lowry $3,914,666 15. Sungjae Im $3,521,500 16. Brian Harman $3,413,200 17. Daniel Berger $3,268,816 18. Tom Hoge $3,240,673 19. Lucas Glover $3,075,113 20. Michael Kim $2,988,673 21. Thomas Detry $2,866,762 22. Tommy Fleetwood $2,794,188 23. Nick Taylor $2,779,464 24. Min Woo Lee $2,754,836 25. Harris English $2,673,954 26. Patrick Cantlay $2,665,380 27. Akshay Bhatia $2,556,137 28. Viktor Hovland $2,396,023 29. Jason Day $2,376,872 30. Denny McCarthy $2,166,130
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: PGA Tour money leaders: Justin Thomas in second, still behind Rory McIlroy