Jordan Spieth took home $1.8 million for winning the Masters - more than triple what Tiger Woods did in 1997

Jordan Spieth won his first green jacket and along with it came a Masters-record $1.8 million share of the tournament purse.

The popularity of Tiger Woods is often credited for the explosion in golf earnings, and the winner's check certainly had it's greatest growth after Woods won his first Masters in 1997 and took home $486,000. However, the growth actually started 15 years before that.

In 1982, Craig Stadler won $64,000. Four years later, when Jack Nicklaus won his last green jacket, the winner's earnings had more than doubled to $144,000 and the race was on.

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