Caddie Network

FAQ: How much money does a caddie make?

Kevin Kisner, Matt Minister
PGA Tour caddies answer the most frequently asked questions from our Caddie Network readers and followers. Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Through our readers and social media followers here at The Caddie Network, we often receive questions related to the caddie profession. We’ve collected the most frequently asked questions from our readers and followers and tasked actual PGA Tour caddies to serve up the answers based on their experiences. Here are the answers — from PGA Tour caddies — to the questions we most often receive from you.

One particularly popular question that caddies get is also one that can be quite awkward — as in it’s not likely something you would ask a person in any other profession: How much money does a caddie make? Of course, there are a lot of factors involved, but we took a look at how the base salary and performance bonus typically works each week on the PGA Tour.

How much money does a caddie make — base salary and performance bonus — each week?

Base salaries start at around $1,500 weekly and go up to between $3,500- $4,000. I’ve heard of at least one guy getting $4,000 per week. The average is around $2,000 now.

That’s the base salary for the week before you factor in player performance in that week’s tournament.

After that, a caddie’s pay is like any pro sports contracts with two exceptions: 1. It’s never guaranteed; and 2. It’s never announced to the public. The structure for the bonus based on player performance work like this in most cases… the old standard was 5 percent for making the cut, 7 percent for a top 10 and 10 percent for winning. These days, it has become more of a two percentages format: make cut or win. And the actual percentages are close to 7 percent and 10 percent, plus or minus a percentage point or two.

Do you have more caddie questions? We have more caddie answers. From “What do caddies keep in the player’s bag for themselves?to “Which are the most caddie-friendly tournaments on the PGA Tour?,” our pros have you covered with over 20 FAQs – just click here.

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