Caddies experience huge average pay increase on LIV Golf Tour

Caddies on the LIV Golf Tour are set to experience a pay increase of nearly 200% due to the vast pots of prize money on the Saudi-backed series. 

According to research conducted by AceOdds, the average pay a caddie will receive in the breakaway league is $34,445. This is an estimated increase of 171% from what they would earn on the PGA Tour.

If we are to assume that a winner of a LIV Golf event gives his caddie 10% of his victory prize, they will earn $400,000. If we also assume that the player in last place gives their caddy a 5% portion of their prize money, they will still earn $6,000.

The research assumes that the lower down the leaderboard a player finishes, the smaller the percentage of the money they are likely to give to their carrier.

The minimum earnings for a player in one tournament is $120,000. As much as this is attractive to the players who have made the switch to the new tour, it offers huge financial benefits to the caddies as well.

LIV Golf has made $25 million purses the norm instead of the exception in 2022. This total is split between the individual and team formats of each event. Dustin Johnson won the fourth event of the series at the weekend in Boston.

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, reportedly worth around $600 billion, is the majority shareholder of LIV Golf and is the source of the nine-figure contracts given out to players such as Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith.

The increase in income that both the players and caddies on the LIV Golf Series have seen has stimulated the PGA Tour to act accordingly, injecting further millions into their own schedule in 2023.

There will be four new Elevated Events with prize purses of $20 million to add to the eight other events which all have prize purses of at least $15 million, not forgetting The Players Championship will be worth $25 million.