Alright, let’s talk about something I got curious about a while back: what do these PGA caddies actually pull in? You see them on TV, walking alongside the pros, looking all serious. You figure they must be doing okay, right? Especially the ones working for the big names.
So, I started digging around, just trying to piece it together from chats I’ve had and stuff you pick up over the years following the game. It wasn’t like looking up a regular salary, believe me. It’s messy.
Breaking Down the Caddie Paycheck
First off, there’s the basic weekly fee. Think of it like show-up money. Just for being there, lugging the bag, giving the yardages. I heard this can be anywhere from, say, $1,500 to maybe $3,000 a week? Depends on the player, the caddie’s experience, all that. This is supposed to cover their basic travel and living costs for the week, but sometimes, maybe not all of it.
But here’s the kicker: the real money, the stuff you hear whispers about, comes from a percentage of the player’s winnings for that tournament.
- Usually, it’s something like 5% if the player makes the cut but doesn’t finish high up.
- It bumps up to maybe 7-8% for a top-10 finish.
- And the big one, if their player actually wins the tournament, the caddie often gets 10%.
The Not-So-Simple Reality
Sounds straightforward? Well, hold on. If the player misses the cut, they get zilch from the tournament purse. And guess what? The caddie gets zilch too, beyond that base weekly pay. Suddenly that base pay doesn’t look so great if it has to cover flights, hotels, and food for a week where you earned no bonus.
I remember talking to a fella whose cousin did some caddying on one of the smaller tours. He said it was brutal. Constant travel, paying your own way mostly, and praying your guy plays well enough just to make the weekend so you get something extra. If the player hits a rough patch, the caddie feels it big time.
So, when you see guys like Bones Mackay or Steve Williams back in the day with Tiger, yeah, they were banking huge sums because their players were consistently winning millions. Ten percent of a million-dollar check is, well, a lot of money. No denying that.
But for every one of those guys, there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of caddies working for players just trying to keep their tour card. Those guys are grinding. Their income swings wildly depending on how their player performs week to week. It’s not a stable gig for most.
It’s a performance-based job in the extreme. High risk, potentially high reward, but absolutely not the guaranteed paycheck most people are used to. It gave me a new appreciation for what those guys do, walking every single hole, rain or shine, win or lose.
