Six PGA Tour and LIV Golf Caddie Bags Topped $1 Million in 2026

Caddie pay in professional golf is almost never disclosed, but the size of it can be estimated from a structure widely used across the sport: a flat weekly fee, typically $1,500 to $4,000, plus a cut of the player's prize money that rises with the finish.

How is a caddie's cut typically calculated?

The common arrangement pays a caddie 10% of the winner's purse, 7% for a top-10 finish and 5% for anything outside the top 10, though some caddies working for journeyman pros instead take a flat 7-8% of all prize money regardless of finish. Every deal is privately negotiated between player and caddie, and caddies are self-employed contractors who usually cover their own travel and hotel costs.

Applying that 10-7-5 formula to this year's official prize money produces a rough picture of what the sport's biggest bags are worth. Scottie Scheffler led the PGA Tour in prize money in 2026, and under that split his caddie, Ted Scott, would have collected an estimated $5,882,586 from Scheffler's winnings alone, before any separate fee.

Who else crossed the $1 million mark?

Six caddie bags are estimated to have generated more than $1 million in prize-money share in 2026 using the same formula: four on the PGA Tour and two on the LIV Golf League.

Wyndham Clark's prize money also cleared the $1 million threshold for his bag, but he changed caddies during the season, so no single person collected the full share. Spaun, 30th in the final FedExCup standings on a season with one win and three other top-10s, would also be in line for a portion of his $245,000 FedExCup bonus on top of Carens's estimated cut.

Six caddie bags crossed an estimated $1 million in prize-money share in 2026 alone.

How does this compare on the LPGA Tour?

Prize money on the LPGA Tour trails the men's game by a wide margin, but top bags still pay well. Jeeno Thitikul led women's golf in prize money in 2025 with $8,269,748.75, and her caddie, Banpot Bunpisansaree, who has worked for her since she was 16 years old and before she turned professional, is estimated to have earned $736,542 from that same 10-7-5 formula.

Who has caddying's biggest all-time payday?

The largest known caddie fortune belongs to Steve Williams, who was on Tiger Woods's bag from 1999 to 2011 for 13 of Woods's 15 major titles and 63 of his PGA Tour wins. Williams is estimated to have earned around $12 million from his share of that prize money and is reported to be worth roughly $20 million today, a total built in part on sponsorship deals tied to his profile. He later caddied for Adam Scott, winning another major.