If anyone is passionate about golf and wants to learn more and earn, they can fulfill their dream as a professional caddy. Caddy is a job on the golf course where the employee is known as a caddie. He has to carry the golfer’s bag and clubs and sometimes partner with them on the practice session. Besides, a caddie has to gather enough knowledge on the entire golf course status. He has to provide all necessary information to the new tour player who hires him for completing that specific tournament.
Generally, caddies get plenty of money with tips from the golfer for which he works. A pro caddie also receives a percentage of the pro golfers earning at the tournament play’s higher level. Before starting your career of caddying the golfers, you should know about this profession’s earnings. That’s why we discuss every related information about the income of the professional golf caddie. This article will provide you with information on becoming a caddie, earnings of PGA, LPGA, and a Pro Caddie.
Table of Contents
- 1 How to become a golf caddie?
- 2 How to be a Pro caddie?
- 3 Responsibilities and Educational Requirements of a Professional Golf Caddie
- 4 Base Salary of a Golf Caddy or Career Money list
- 5 How much does a caddy make at a country club?
- 6 LPGA caddies salary
- 7 PGA Caddies Salary
- 8 How much do Teenage Caddies make?
- 9 What it takes to be A PGA Tour Caddie
How to become a golf caddie?
If you think to be a caddie, you have to join any golf league to gain knowledge. You also have to learn all the chores and responsibilities you will have while working as a caddie. It will be best if you also have to keep in mind that your patience and consistency in supporting a golfer are crucial to becoming a pro. PCA or Professional Caddie Association arranges training programs for amateurs who want to take caddying as a profession. And after getting training through this association, anyone can get a permanent job on the golf courses near them.
The PCA also provides all required training courses for becoming a pro caddie. After completing these training courses, the apprentices can get a contracted caddie for a pro golfer. When any caddie gets a pro golfer contract, they can earn more than assist the PGA or LPGA tour players. Depending on the status of experience and working platform, the earnings vary for a golf caddie.
Most people think that the caddy’s job is not critical, but it is challenging and must achieve a long-term experience in caddying. As they improve the golfer’s playing status, they must be masters on the course’s condition. To be a pro caddie, one should know the fundamentals of the golf game, choose clubs for the golf balls’ perfect movement, and the golfer’s unique stance.
How to be a Pro caddie?
Besides, they have to reach the course before the players and calculate the terrain’s yardage slope. They have to carry golfer’s golf bags at tee times while they move to the next tee box. They should know every essential step for improving golf as they have to act like a coach and build up a closer relationship for providing full mental support. All professional golfers try to hire a pro caddie, choosing the caddy job required to improve the skill level. It will help them to increase their earnings. If any caddie can continue 20 to 30 events with a pro, they can easily earn around $2000 per week and up to $150,000 per year.
Responsibilities and Educational Requirements of a Professional Golf Caddie
In general, caddies have to carry the player’s golf equipment and supplies during the tournament week play and practice session. He also acts as a coach and gives mortal support throughout the golf match. Besides, they have to inform the golfer about the weather condition and the course status like terrain category and facilities throughout the competition. If he works as a contracted caddie, he has to travel with the golfer all the year wherever he goes to play any single tournament or Major Tournaments.
Most caddies do not need to work more than 30 weeks a year. So they can easily search for another job for the rest of the time of the year. The incredible thing is that a caddie does not require a high educational background; it just needs complete knowledge about this profession’s responsibilities. Most caddies start this job after completing high school or college level.
Caddying is the preliminary job to enter the golf industry. After a certain period, it is possible to get associated with the USA’s premium golf course when a caddie can build up an excellent reputation in this caddy profession. But in Europe, they don’t benefit from the private golf course because most European golf courses don’t offer caddy services for the golf tournament.
Base Salary of a Golf Caddy or Career Money list
TYPES OF CADDIE |
EARNINGS OF A CADDIE |
Teenage caddie |
$15 – $20 per hour |
Amateur caddie |
$25 – $30 per hour |
Professional caddie |
$45 – $50 per hour |
PGA caddie |
$1000 -$1500 base payment + 5-10% of tournament winnings |
How much does a caddy make at a country club?
Generally, beginners or amateurs are working in country golf clubs. Perhaps the public golf clubs have no caddie services, but some country clubs still provide caddying facilities. So junior caddies have a chance to earn on an average $30 per hour with extra money as tips. Most of this amount depends on the advice and only a tiny part as a fixed rate. As the first stage of caddying, everyone should agreed-upon a weekly salary. But nobody needs to be upset because if they satisfy the successful players, the earning may increase to $50 to $75 per hour.
For a person who wants to step into caddying profession, country golf clubs are the best place to start. Because of the requirement to keep patience to work as a golf caddy for professional golf players, every newcomer should start from the country clubs. After getting an experience of more or less than one year, teenage or amateur golf caddies can get a job at wealthy country clubs or higher tournament levels like PGA, LPGA, or Major Golf Championships.
LPGA caddies salary
On average, the LPGA caddie can make around $1200 per week as the base salary. At the LPGA tournament, caddies have to pay all their lodging expenses for caddying on the contest. So most of these earnings go for reimbursing travel expenses and residential costs. But the most fantastic aspect of working on an LPGA tournament is that the caddy has the right on the prize money share. In the championship Tournament, the pro golfer has to pay 7% to 8% of their earnings to their caddie. So if the player goes far in the match, the supported caddie’s income increases a lot.
On the other hand, if the golfers fail, it badly affects the assistant’s or caddie’s reputation, whose duty is to advise the participant and give moral support like a psychiatrist. As the award money of LPGA is not high as the PGA tour, a lady golfer requires to cut a high amount of winning money as a caddy percentage. As the LPGA rule, if a woman golfer wins the LPGA tour and receives the award money of $300,000, she has to cut $21,000 to $24,000 from that prize. Therefore, the LPGA caddies can double their earnings if they can caddying for one successful golfer.
PGA Caddies Salary
Generally, The PGA does not set any standard scale or regulate the recruitment of golf caddies. That’s why pro golfers are responsible for hiring their caddie. As pros have to pay caddies as they win from the tournaments, most PGA tour players and other pro golfers partner with their caddies. And caddies also rely on pros because their payment fixes as they make on the competition. Usually, the caddie’s basic salary on a PGA tour is around $1000 to $2000 per week. With this principle payment, they get –
- 5% of earnings if their contracted golfer can not reach at top 10
- 7% of winning money if the player can get a position within the top 10 players
- 10% of the tournament prize money
As this provision, if a PGA pro wins $1,000,000, then his caddy owns $100,000, which is a fantastic achievement. If you search for a caddie’s income in a PGA tour, you can get that some pro caddies earn more than a million in a year. In these cases, caddies must work hard for their pros to strengthen their players’ match with positive and powerful mental support.
How much do Teenage Caddies make?
Usually, caddies over 14 years of age are considered teens. They can start the caddy; however, it’s not the right time for earning. After that, if anyone tries to build up a career in the caddy profession, it is time to gather experience. At this stage, they can earn 15 to 20 dollars per hour. If a teenage caddie carries the golfer’s bags in 18 holes, they can get tips up to 120 dollars if the player is so passionate about their golfing. It is quite a common scenario that a teenager earns $500 to $800 per week.
What it takes to be A PGA Tour Caddie
Final words
The caddy will be an excellent job if you take it more passionately and love your responsibilities. However, every caddie will have to keep patience from the early stage of working to succeed. In this article, we discuss all crucial issues related to the caddy profession. So we hope it will be more helpful for you if you want to be a caddie. You can also visit our website if you have more queries about the golf game.