Rory McIlroy says winning $10 million in a tournament no longer excites him
After sitting out a couple of tournaments with an ankle injury, McIlroy will be competing in the Tour Championship by Coca-Cola, and winning the tournament will be his biggest goal.
While speaking to reporters, someone asked McIlroy if the $10 million bonus for winning excites him.
McIlroy, who's made $28 million in winnings during his career, nearly $5 million this season, and has a deal with Nike that is rumored to be worth $20-25 million per year, had a blunt answer:
"No. Luckily, that amount of money doesn't sort of mean much to me anymore," McIlroy said. "So, no. I mean it's not a - it will go in the bank and if I want to buy something nice, I will. It's not really anything that - I mean, like, it's nice to think that you could win $10 million this week, but that's not what excites me.
"It excites me to play well and to try and win."
Later, the subject was brought up again, and McIlroy explained how the prize money was once exciting for him, but he's since moved on.
"I remember I wanted this watch," he began. He explained how he had won some prize money for the first time and when he checked his account balance, realized he could afford the watch. "And I went to get money out of the ATM the week after and the check had obviously been put in and I wanted to check my balance and it was like whatever it was, £220,000 and I was like - I mean, I went straight to the store and bought this watch.
"I mean I remember it. It's something I'll remember for the rest of my life. But, obviously, at that stage I had just been a pro three or four weeks, I had never seen that amount of money before... I just saw this amount of money and I was like, yes, I'm going to get this watch."
He added that back then most of his friends were just trying to scrape enough money together to go out for a night at college, so the amount he had won was obviously exciting.
While McIlroy's comments may not seem the most self-aware - somebody else will gladly take the $10 million if he doesn't care about it - he does realize how fortunate professional golfers are.
"We're playing for over a million dollars every week," he said, "We're in such a fortunate position and I think everyone on tour realizes that. The majority of the guys that are out here know that their kids will be okay, their kids can go to college, their kids will probably be okay as well.
"So to be able to setup the next couple of generations of your family for a nice life, it's very fortunate and very privileged that we're able to do that."
Unfortunately, McIlroy added that he's not sure if he still has the watch.