Great sporting paydays

Rory McIlroy knew the cheque had cleared when he received a text from one grateful caddie. “I think his words were, ‘ A tsunami just hit my bank account’,” McIlroy said of the message he received this week from JP Fitzgerald. A tsunami was probably right — for winning the FedEx Cup, McIlroy received US$ 10 million ($ 14m) and gave Fitzgerald a 10 per cent cut for carrying the bag ($ 1.4m for those math- agnostic). Not bad for golfer or caddie and, while the FedEx Cup is decided by four events, McIlroy’s financial tsunami compares pretty favourably to some of sport’s other biggest paydays. . .

Warning: we’re going to get pretty fringy in our definition of sport for this one. To wit, the Dubai World Cup, the richest horse race in the world. Considering the race chairman is Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as the bankroller of Manchester City, it’s hardly surprising the winner of this one gets a cool $ 14 million. American nag California Chrome was this year’s champion and, I presume, received lifetime supply of carrots.

Ah, yes, poker, another bastion of sporting excellence. Whatever its merits, the main event at the World Series of Poker is the most coveted award a poker player can win and brings with it a first prize of $ 11.2 million. Which is actually down on the $ 14m payout the winner once received. Hardly worth it now, really. Now we can quit screwing around and get to the real champ. There’s a reason Mayweather’s nickname is ‘ Money’ and that reason is his command of the cash whenever he steps in the ring. The apex was the mega- fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2015 when, after his share of the purse was added to pay- per- view sales, Mayweather took home $ 320 million ( Pacquiao earned a paltry $ 210m). For 36 minutes’ work, that equates to almost $ 150,000 a second.