Over the last couple of years I’ve been caddying off and on on the LPGA Tour and wanted to share some of my experience. I’ve been getting asked a bunch recently, so decided to lay it out here. There’s some back story here, so if you don’t care, you can skip halfway down
To start out, I’m just a regular guy like the rest of us, I absolutely love the game of golf. I’ve had many jobs in the golf industry. I was a caddy at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club in Orlando from 2003-2006. . I then became a cart guy at a golf club here in Orlando, was moved into the pro shop and eventually became a director of golf at the age of 23. The youngest one in this area.
I loved being a director of golf. I was always putting together fun events for our members and public players to play in. I did themed scrambles for every major and even did glow golf events. I loved that aspect of the job. I loved organizing tournaments.
I was a director of golf for 5 years before being run into the ground and eventually deciding to leave that part of the business. Getting ready to start a family, working 6-7 days a week, and the hours it demanded, it just wasn’t conducive to being the family man I wanted to be. Afterall in golf, when everyone else is off, you’re working. maybe I bitched out but I was never more happy when I left. I loved what I did, but I strongly disliked who I worked for and that was my reasoning for wanting out. Not to mention the pay was shit.
I played high school golf, but never went any further than that at a college level. In fact I went right to work in the industry right out of high school.
Fast forward years later, a move to Boston in 2012, and an eventual move back to Orlando in 2017, and that’s really where this all begins.
When I moved back to Orlando, I really got back into golf. This was also when I started DWMP. The kids were now old enough to where I didn’t feel like a shithead leaving my wife to go play golf with two little ones. My 5 years in Boston with little kids, I played maybe 20 times in total.
When I ramped up the practice and play, I went through a real hot stretch of golf and decided to play some mini tour golf in the area just to see if I could compete. I went on to win my first mini tour event in 2019 over a decent field comprised of former PGA Tour players, a player that won the Florida Open, collegiate players and trust fund kids that have nothing better to do than play golf and practice all day. I was pretty stoked at the time being a 33 year old dude with a dad bod beating up on some pretty solid competition. Shoutout to my caddie Kevin aka 9 fingers.
I didn’t really do much after that win. I got to a +2 handicap, which is solid for an average guy like me, but sadly it’s not good enough to compete and play as a full time thing and make good money. I organized a lot of my own outings with the great people of DWMP that I met along the way in this area. And that’s really what has been the extent of my play ever since.
How it started
In 2021 I was playing golf with my brother-in-law, a mutual friend and one of their friends. That’s where I met Jacqui Concolino. We were playing a best ball match in our foursome and I was pouring everything in. If there’s one thing I can do, it’s read greens and make putts. Jacqui pointed that fact out and we continued on our match. Later in the match she was talking about heading to Hawaii in a couple weeks for the Lotte Championship on the LPGA Tour. She was talking about how she needed a caddie and I said “I’ll fucking go to Hawaii”. She said “yeah?”. And that’s where it all began.
Going to Hawaii with some girl I had just met was a tough tough sell to the wife, understandably. But like everything else along my journey these recent years, she let me do my thing.
I caddied for Jacqui for 6 LPGA events in 2021 during Covid. Jacqui was a veteran on the LPGA Tour and during Covid with all the Asian players not coming over here to play, she ended up getting into a decent amount of events that year. we made 2 cuts and never really finished better than 60th. But it was an awesome experience. The people I met, the players I ate lunch with in player dining, and the facilities I went to were all just absolutely incredible. I owe a lot to Jacqui for the experience I now have today
I thought I was done caddying since Jacqui’s career was pretty much over. But in the spring of 2022, I’m laying down in bed on a Saturday night and I get a text from a players manager.
“Hi Andrew, my name is Kyuri and I am Sung Hyun Park’s manager. Sung Hyun is currently looking for a caddie to potentially work full-time. I found your contact info through the LPGA.”
Holy fucking shit, is someone messing with me? Surely they are. I knew Sung Hyun’s name and had to look it up. Yep, it’s who I thought it was. SH, a recent two time major winner, needed a caddie and had her manager reached out of me. what the actual fuck. Why are they reaching out to me??? I almost pulled the Aaron Rappaport from ‘The Interview’ thinking it was a joke
I sat up, and had a 30 minute conversation with Kyuri all via text, I still thought I was being fucked with, but was afraid to ask for proof.
It was Saturday night, and SH needed a caddie for that coming weeks event. Once I was registered as her caddie and saw it on the portal, that was my proof she was real. Less than 24 hours after getting the initial text, I was on a flight to Los Angeles for the LA Open. We went on to make the cut there. It was a mediocre finish, but SH asked me if I was available for her next event. Absolutely.
We went on to have some solid finishes, and some bad finishes, we made about 50% of the cuts for the events we played in. Notably a top 30 in the 2022 US Open at Pine Needles (my largest check to date with the largest purse in LPGA history at the time of $10M) and a top 15 in an event in New Jersey. (Regular events the purse is roughly $2M which compared to the men’s, it’s quite a bit less, but I get why)
On Sunday in NJ we were paired with Brooke Henderson. SH and Brooke both started their round somewhere around the top 20 roughly 5 strokes off the lead. Brooke went on to shoot a final round 64 and won in a playoff, which was unreal to see in person. By the way, Brooke is the absolute coolest. Her sister caddies for her and they are both just breaths of fresh air. Brooke and her sister work so well together on the course. It was very interesting to see how much they dissect every single shot in person. Every variable is discussed before every shot is hit.
SH was a very different person than my first player I caddied for. Jacqui could party, she’d out drink every single one of us, and she was very outgoing. SH was very very quiet, she spoke English, enough to converse with me, but it also didn’t seem like she really wanted to talk either, she was strictly business. We eventually parted ways. Which from what I’m learning is a massive part of this business. A lot of girls go through caddies like water and talking and seeing other caddies out here, it’s a continual rotation of players and caddies for players outside the top 50.
My last event with SH was towards the end of the summer of 2022. I didn’t really pursue anything after that and I continued on with my life.
Caddying a full time schedule isn’t really something I was sure I wanted to do, the schedules can be tough and being away from the family for long periods of time, is something that I don’t like to do, and even goes against the exact reasons why I left the golf business in the first place. But there’s just something about being on the road, and competing which really satisfies my love for the game, and if I can’t compete myself, being on this side of the bag is almost equally as fulfilling. It’s a grind I love.
I continued to keep in touch with all the other caddies in a group chat we have. Those guys are constantly posting players that are looking for caddies. I figured going sort of a part time route may actually work great for me. I’m perfectly ok bouncing around bag to bag and deciding when the timing works to leave for the week. So I kept in touch.
Come 2023, someone posts that a rookie is looking for a caddie. KK Park is a 22 year old rookie. Super talented, won a couple times on the Epson Tour, and earned her 2023 tour card by finishing in the top 20 at Q-School. So I reached out to her, and we hit it off.
I got on her bag part of the way into the season, she had gone through a few caddies. We missed our first two cuts, she used another caddie following that, then hit me right up again to continue on.
We ended up qualifying for the US Open via our qualifying site, but she decided to use a local caddie at the very last second. Something that didn’t sit right with me which I felt I earned, but I totally understand. On Wednesday morning of US Open week, she called me in the morning and asked if I could fly that day to Pebble for round 1, apparently the caddie she was given was not good and she really didn’t like. I scrambled, sorted things out, and called her back and said I can be there at 10pm Wednesday night, but reminded her that I’d of course be seeing the course blind. With no personal notes from practice rounds. She thought it over and decided to stick with the local. She went in to miss the cut, but did bring me a hat from Pebble to the next event I worked with her. So I had that going for me 😂
This season I’m finishing the season with a couple different players, KK on the LPGA, and a really solid player on the Epson Tour who is trying to get her card for 2024
Starting in 2024 I’ll be on the bag for Pinyada Kuvanun. An extremely talented girl from Thailand who is not the longest player out there, but certainly the straightest. She led the tour last year with a fairway percentage of 88%. She truly is like caddying a video game. Just point and hit it there
What’s the pay?
Caddying on the LPGA Tour is a great experience, and something I really enjoy doing. Do you make a lot of money doing it, not particularly, especially if your player struggles. Here’s a look at the standard of what caddies make each week. Some make more, some make less
Base pay: Most caddies receive a base pay of $1,400-$1,600 for the week. All of your expenses come out of this base and you’re on your own for travel, hotel, etc using that base. (The only exception is international events, the player covers your airfare on international events)… as far as a percentage, that’s usually negotiated but you can expect to make 6-8% of anything that player makes after making the cut, and a 10% bonus for a win.
Expenses: Since we pay our own way, it’s up to us to find the most practical and cheapest way to get to an event and place to stay. I personally usually fly (unless an event in the southeast somewhere), so airfare is going to run anywhere from $400-600 round trip at the minimum…
Hotel/Airbnb: I’m at the point in my life where I really don’t care to share a hotel room with another dude. I usually stay by myself. This does eat away a little bit more of the expense, but I like nothing more to come back to my own hotel and be able to do what I want and talk to the family. For a week, I’m usually looking at anywhere from $600-$800+ in a hotel. Sometimes it’s less in a small city, sometimes it’s more in a big city.
Yardage book: caddies have to pay for our own yardage book. Players get them for free. They are super detailed and well worth it. I’ve done videos on them in the past and I’ll do again. Those cost us $40 every event.
I don’t really consider food an expense on the road since I’m eating anyways, the tour feeds us breakfast and lunch which helps, and then usually for dinner I’ll grab something quick. But I will say, the spreads the tour puts out for us for breakfast and lunch is first class. Each meal is a huge buffet spread, omelet stations, meat carving stations, the whole thing. The food is really my favorite part.
As far as expenses go, we pretty much use our base just in getting to these events and staying for the week, so it’s a break even. You don’t really see any sort of profit unless your player makes the cut. And even then with the small purses of the LPGA (anywhere from $1.8m-$2.5m for a normal event), you really need to finish inside the top 30 to make a decent paycheck. (The majors are where you can really make money with a $10m purse)
For ballpark figures on a regular tour event: caddie numbers here are on TOP of the base..
A 60th place finish will get the player $6k (caddie makes an additional $420 on top of base.
40th $10k or $700 additional for caddie
30th $20k or $1,400 additional for caddie
20th $30k or $2,100 additional for caddie
10th $45k or $2,800 additional for caddie
5th $115k or $8,000 additional for caddie
Win, usually around 350k for player which would get the caddie an additional $35k
On the Epson tour, the LPGA’s equivalent to the Korn Ferry Tour, the purse is 1/10th of the LPGA, so you can divide all these numbers above by 10. Not very lucrative on that tour.
So caddying on tour is pretty much legalized gambling. There’s the dangling fruit of a huge paycheck. Being out here, it is such a fine line between making the cut and missing it, and a microscopic line between between a win and cracking the top 20. It’s very difficult. And I learned that fast. But I love what I’m doing. We’re not just reading putts, getting yardages and helping with club selection, we’re also basically part time psychologists out here. There’s a lot of emotions in this game and part of a caddies job is keeping them in check. Our other main job, always know where the wind is at, and always make sure they have water.
There’s no better feeling than nailing reads and making the right call for a player, and helping turn a round around that could be a disaster, and there’s no worse feeling than missing a read and being wrong. The highs and lows make it all even more exciting. Golf really is the best
