By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent, Augusta

A lot changed at the Masters this year - nine of the holes, for a start - but one thing that did not was the money.

Bucking the recent trend for big increases in the prize fund at golf's biggest events each year, Augusta National officials decided to give the game's top players exactly the same as they received last April.

That meant a winner's cheque of just over a million dollars - roughly £720,000 - and six-figure sums for all the top 15.

The Masters only reveals its purse during the tournament and it will now be interesting to see what the Royal and Ancient Club, organisers of the Open, do when they announce their prize money for Muirfield later this month.

David Duval's £600,000 reward at Lytham last summer was £100,000 up on the amount Tiger Woods received at St Andrews in 2000 - and only three years ago Paul Lawrie earned £350,000 at Carnoustie.

The Masters remains the richest of the majors with its £4million total prize money.