You’ll Never Guess How Many Golfers Made Forbes “25 Highest-Paid Athletes Of All Time” List
- Updated: December 18, 2017
Forbes recently released a list of the 25 highest-paid athletes of all time and to nobody’s surprise, a few golfers found themselves near the top. In fact, 4 of the top-6 athletes on this list are golfers! In all, there were 5 in the top 13. The only other sports which featured 5 athletes were basketball and boxing.
Here’s what factored into the numbers:
Forbes’ earnings estimates include salaries, bonuses, prize money, endorsements and licensing, as well as fees from books, golf course designs, and appearances. Earnings cover from the time the athletes turned pro through June 1, 2017, and include money earned after playing careers were over, as well as earnings by the estate in the case of Arnold Palmer. We do not include investment income, and we back-filled years where we did not publish earnings figures, such as prior to 1990 for Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. We adjusted all figures for inflation.
And here’s the list in full. Drumroll, please …
Career earnings: $1.85 billion (2017 dollars)
2. Tiger Woods
Career earnings: $1.7 billion
3. Arnold Palmer
Career earnings: $1.4 billion
4. Jack Nicklaus
Career earnings: $1.2 billion
5. Michael Schumacher
Career earnings: $1 billion
6. Phil Mickelson
Career earnings: $815 million
7. (tie) Kobe Bryant, David Beckham
Career earnings: $785 million
9. Floyd Mayweather
Career earnings: $800 million
10. Shaquille O’Neal
Career earnings: $735 million
13. Greg Norman
Career earnings: $705 million
14. Mike Tyson
Career earnings: $700 million
15. Roger Federer
Career earnings: $675 million
16. Lionel Messi
Career earnings: $600 million
17. Alex Rodriguez
Career earnings: $575 million
18. Jeff Gordon
Career earnings: $525 million
19. Oscar De La Hoya
Career earnings: $520 million
20. Manny Pacquiao
Career earnings: $510 million
21. Derek Jeter
Career earnings: $490 million
22. (tie) Peyton Manning, Kevin Garnett
Career earnings: $480 million
24. Evander Holyfield
Career earnings: $475 million
25. Andre Agassi
Career earnings: $470 million
[Forbes]
