In sports, Golf is a very lucrative option to choose. Golfers are earning a huge amount of money as we see in different media. Then the very next question comes, how much do golf caddies make! Oh, it depends upon many criteria like quality, experience, golfer’s ranking, tips, winning percentages, etc. Golf caddie’s job is found beneficiary to involve in golf courses.
Caddie’s Duties:
A Caddie have to do several duties-
- Carrying golfer’s bag
- Keep the player’s clubs clean
- Locate golfers ball & calculate yardage to the pin
- Keep player’s morality high by motivating
- Sometimes give his opinion about the next move
- And, many more things.
The type of duties and the quality of service make difference in the earnings of a caddie. In all professions, there are amateur and professional terms. So the payment must vary between amateurs & Pros.
Caddying can be done in local clubs, PGA, LPGA tournaments. As a High school students, there are some difficulties to engage in any job. Caddying is a great option to earn some extra money for them. He or she might do caddying at their local or country club as teenage caddies.
Let’s try to put some rays on how much do caddies make.
Amateur Caddies Earnings:
From age of 14, anyone can start his career as a Teenage Caddie. A teenage caddy can earn between 15$ to 20$ per hour. At this stage, they only carry the player’s bag to play 18 holes.
After being an experience of one or two years, the level increased. The teenage caddie level up to an amateur. He or she can earn by giving service in the country clubs. In this stage, a caddie can make 20$ to 30$ on average. Caddying is actually profitable on tips or some fixed rate. At the country level, it is very hard to get tips. But it’s just a starting towards a lucrative profession, right!
There is some good news too! If a caddie serves renowned and wealthy country clubs, he/she can earn 50$ to 75$ per hour! And, if tips would add, then who knows the earnings might 100$!
Nowadays, almost every club having a caddying program aside main golf course. So anyone who is interested in caddying might join those events.
Professional Caddies Earnings:
A caddying job is open to all ages. But professional caddie is a high and profitable level in caddie’s career. With significant experience and quality, a caddie work for a professional golfer. At this stage, a pro caddie may make money 45$ to 55$ per hour. And, can participate as a caddie in PGA or LPGA tournaments.
- LPGA Tour:
An LPGA caddie can make money around 1200$ as a weekly base salary. This basic salary usually expenses to cover their own expenses like accommodation, traveling cost, etc. And, if the player won’t have a successful tour, then it’s a non-profitable tour for a caddie.
Usually, an LPGA caddie gets a 7% to 8% cut of winnings. If a Lady golfer can make her winning money of $400,000, then her caddy might get $28,000 to $32,000 as a cut.
LPGA does not pay as high as PGA. But earnings can be higher if the player is one of the most successful players of the tour. The corresponding golfer can make the caddie’s pay double. It all depends on the contract and the golfer’s wish.
- PGA Tour:
In PGA, caddies get paid around $2000 per week. Some might get more or less. The PGA caddie has an agreement. In that agreement, the winning cut is 5-10% of the golfer’s prize money for that tour. As the PGA prize money is quite handsome, so the caddie can make a lot of money. Like LPGA, it depends upon the success rate of the player.
So, if a PGA golfer earns prize money of $1,000,000 then a caddie could make around $100,000 as a cut.
Some of the successful player’s caddies make their money over a million in a year. But there must be a generous rate of cut in the agreement.
Some highest-paid caddies earnings:
A professional caddie does make nearly $75,000 to $1,20,000 in a year. Among them, there are some of the most paid caddies. Here, we reveal some of the top caddies earning of the year 2020.
- Jimmy Johnson make big money in 2020. His earnings are about $382,851. He was caddying for Justin Thomas who won the PGA Tour Sentry Tournaments of champions and St Jude invitation. Jimmy got a 10% cut of total prize money. He earned the highest money share at Jude’s invitation up to $182,200.
- Jonathan Jakovac earns about $366,825 in the year 2020. He worked for Collin Morikawa on PGA Tour. And, there he got a share of prize money approximately $300k.
- Austin Johnson is caddying for Justin Johnson. Austin recently makes money at nearly $352,600.
All these Caddies earnings pieces of information are based on their PGA Tours. And, obviously, their players are in the top 5 positions in professional tournaments.
How Much do Golf Caddies Make
Now it is crystal clear that the amateur and professional caddies’ earnings are different. And, making money by caddying depend upon some factors. Pro-golfers hire their caddies as per requirements. A professional caddie has to do something more than just carrying bags, clubs, or cleaning balls! Here we take a glimpse of the above passages. Let’s summarize how much do caddies make-
- Beginner caddies can make $15 to $20 per hour
- Caddying with a year of experience can earn $20 to $30 per hour
- A caddie who has good experience and quality may make $35 to $45 on an hourly basis.
- With significant quality and experience, a pro-caddie can make $75,000 to $1,20,000 in a year or $2,500 at a weekly wage
- And, on the top with a good agreement, a pro-caddie may make money over one or two million on average.
In this article, we just see the sparkle of dollars. But there are some negative sides to the caddying profession.
As we know, caddie has to bear his travel expenses and lodging expenses. These kinds of expenditures cost about 25-30% of a caddie’s base salary. Amateur caddies usually don’t get any cut of the prize money. Pro-caddies get up to 5-10% cut, but it depends on the contract. The main income of caddies comes from tips and percentages over prize money.
Caddie has to pay self-employment tax and health insurance. The golfers can fire his caddie any time. It is a contractual job.
Besides some of the cons, still caddying is an attractive profession to choose.
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References
1) https://www.quora.com/How-much-do-caddies-for-professional-golfers-make-Do-they-make-a-percentage-of-the-purse
2) https://www.sportekz.com/money/pga-tour-caddies-salaries/
3) https://www.golflink.com/facts_8055_earnings-pga-tour-caddy.html
4) https://www.golfspan.com/how-much-do-golf-caddies-make
5) https://www.sportscasting.com/the-highest-paid-caddies-on-the-pga-tour/
6) https://www.sportscasting.com/heres-how-much-pro-golfers-pay-their-caddies/
7) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2TJn_SqGJY
8) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jehCJa6GwBE
9) https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2019/02/14/golf-caddie-earnings-matt-kuchar-mayakoba-classic/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_3804981
10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqf00pcDgZ0
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