Can Tour Caddies Earn Money From Sponsorship Deals?
Traditionally caddies for tour golfers are paid a fee by their player for each tournament, plus a percentage of the player’s winnings. But in recent years another avenue of earning money has arisen for caddies: sponsorship.
It is up to the caddie and player to arrange payment terms between them. But a typical tournament fee for a caddie on the PGA Tour is said to be $1,500 to $3,000. A typical prize money percentage, 5/7/10 – that is 5% of prize money, but rising to 7% for a top-10 finish and 10% for a win. Caddies typically pay their own expenses.
If you have a successful player, the rewards can be enormous. Work for a more journeyman player, who after all in the majority on tour, and it’s a different picture.
Caddies having sponsorship is not a new idea. Tiger Woods’ long-term caddie, Steve Williams, was sponsored by two of Woods’ sponsors, Nike Golf and Swiss watch company Tag Heuer.
But Williams also had an individual sponsor of his own, in oil brand Valvoline. This was despite Tiger Woods’ commercial relationship with a rival firm, Chevron.
William’s personal Valvoline sponsorship deal came into prominence as he had the company’s logo on the front of his shirt. Williams would take off his caddie bib on the 18th green, thereby allowing his shirt sponsor coverage. The tour often turned a blind eye to this practice, although it irked some.
The tour regulations required caddies to wear the bib for all 18 holes, but did the wording allow for the caddie to take the bib off on the 18th green if he had worn it down the length of the 18th hole?
When he caddied for Tiger Woods, Williams often got away with this practice. After he split from Woods, the tour became less lenient to Williams.
Increased exposure
Caddies have become a more prominent part of the wider golf coverage, including being featured in documentaries, such as the Netflix series Full Swing, and through having their own social media presence. This has increased their attractiveness to sponsors.
Billy Foster, who has caddied for, among others, Seve Ballesteros, Darren Clarke, Thomas Bjorn, Sergio Garcia, Matt Fitzpatrick, Lee Westwood and Tiger Woods, was hired as a brand ambassador for Motocaddy.
Billy Foster and Seve Ballesteros
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Last year five PGA Tour pro caddies Geno Bonnalie (Joel Dahmen), Aaron Flener (JT Poston), John Limanti (Akshay Bhatia), Joel Stock (Will Zalatoris) and John Ellis (Wyndham Clark) agreed a collective six-figure sponsorship deal for them to wear SAXX clothing on and off the course.
In the 2015-16 PGA Tour season cleaning company Jani-King began sponsoring caddie’s towels. They started with a dozen caddies, and now more than 150 caddies carry these towels.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
In 2024 the company launched the Spring Clean Challenge, and held it again this year. It involves three two-man teams which, in 2025, competed for a prize pool of $137,500. The competition was based on each team’s combined FedExCup points earned during 10 selected tournaments on the PGA Tour during the Spring.
The winners were Sepp Straka and Greyson Sigg with caddies Duane Bock and Jeff Willett. The players received $30,000 each and their caddies $5,000. Second place won $20,000 per player and $2,500 per caddie; third (a.k.a. last), $10,000 per player and $1,250 per caddie.
Tour support
But the tours themselves have also acted to implement sponsorship programs for caddies. Since 2014, paint company Valspar has sponsored the PGA Tour’s Caddie Hat Program, whereby caddies are paid to wear the company’s logo on their hats.
The PGA Tour Caddie Incentive Program has a pool of $1million which is split at the end of the season among the qualifying caddies based upon a points system.
Each point becomes worth a monetary value at the end of the season, calculated at $1million divided by the aggregate number of points accrued. Points are awarded based upon what the caddie wears and how his professional fares during tournaments.
Caddies get 1 point for each round they wear “Official Valspar logoed head wear that includes all 4 logos (Official Valspar logo on front, back and side of hat; and PGA Tour logo on the side)”, plus “two bonus points per round for round 3 & 4 if their player is within top 20 (+ ties) at start of round.”
If the caddie’s player wins the tournament, the caddie gets a further 10 bonus points, with the remainder of the top-10 positions earning 5 bonus points.
If you think this is getting a bit convoluted, wait until you get to the bit about what the caddie actually wears: “Half a point (0.5) will be given per round if a caddie wears a bucket hat or a colorful hat in one of the following colors: red, green, blue (excluding navy), purple, yellow, orange or Valspar Color of the Year distributed during the Valspar Championship. No extra points will be given if a caddie wears a hat of the following colors: black, white, grey, tan or navy, or wears a visor.”
Andrew Novak and caddie, Jeff Hamley, who is earning a point for his orange Valspar hat
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Woe betide any caddie who puts on the wrong headgear later in a tournament as “If, after wearing a Valspar hat during the first round, a caddie wears a hat other than the Valspar hat, the caddie will be immediately disqualified from the Caddie Incentive Plan and will forfeit all previously earned points.”
In 2019 the European Tour entered a partnership with the European Tour Caddies Association “aimed at driving the potential of caddies as a collective commercial commodity.”
Sean Russell, Chairman of the ETCA explained at the time that: “The commercial value of caddies has been under-exploited over the years. But with caddies now being increasingly visible on television and across a wide range of social media platforms, we believe sponsors are starting to understand their importance and value from a commercial perspective.
“For the majority of caddies who do not have financial security, wellbeing, or the many things most people take for granted – like notice periods, redundancy packages, pension contributions or medical insurance – this will help make a huge difference.”
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