PGA Tour Caddie Sheds Some Light On Just How Much Money They Make And Struggles Of The Job


Kip Henley

There are a few PGA Tour caddies (Jim “Bones” Mackay, Mike “Fluff” Cowan, Michael Greller, etc.) who are in the multi-millionaire club, but for the vast majority, caddie life isn’t so lucrative. It is a grind that, at the end of the day, might never be very financially rewarding.

Yesterday, PGA Tour looper, Kip Henley went on Twitter and quickly broke down some of the realities that caddies on tour face. From compensation to travel expenses to what’s left at the end of the day, he revealed a not-so-glamorous life for caddies who loop for middle-of-the-pack Tour pros. It is actually quite eye-opening and when you remove the top 5% of earners from the caddie pool, these truths serve as a solid reason why the PGA Tour should step up and do something for these guys. It’s true that they chose this life and if they don’t like it they can go do something else, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fucked up that the PGA Tour turns them into walking billboards every week and they don’t even compensate them for it.

Anyway, here is a bit of a breakdown of what a caddie (who works for a golfer that earns $1,000,000) might realistically take home after it is all said and done.




He continued, a few tweets later, about the significance of a good caddie and the impact they have on a tour player.

There are a lot of other worthwhile tweets in his timeline about this stuff, but he kind of ended on this note.

It’s great that most players take care of these guys (they should), but the fact remains that the PGA Tour should take action as well. Week in and week out these guys are out there busting their ass for their player and at the same time they are helping the Tour promote their precious sponsors on the bibs they are forced to wear. The least the tour could do is throw them some kind of compensation (or an insurance or pension plan) for it. After all, and I’M NOT SUGGESTING THIS, but what would the Tour do if the caddies decided to suddenly go on strike at 7am on the morning of the first round of the Players Championship? Wouldn’t that fuckin’ predicament. Again, definitely not suggesting that, but boy would that really get the point across. #TeamCaddie