It’s no secret that the 54 players who make up the field at each LIV Golf tournament are well-paid for their appearances, with the winner of each of its regular events banking $4m and even the player at the foot of the leaderboard after each no-cut contest earning $50,000.
But what about the caddies? Not surprisingly, they are also well rewarded for their efforts over the three days of action for each tournament.
Like other circuits, caddies typically receive 10% of the prize money claimed by a tournament’s winner and between 5% and 7% depending on how high up the leaderboard a player finishes. Given that, it’s safe to say that the vast majority of caddies earn a good living from their work alongside a LIV golfer.
A quick look at the LIV Golf money list tells us that, before the 12th tournament of the 2024 season, LIV Golf Greenbrier, all but five of the 58 players that have had teed it up at some point this season have earned north of $1m.
That means that, even for the last of those, reserve John Catlin, whose earnings stood at $1,091,867, his caddie Barry Cornwall will likely have claimed at least $65,000 - and that’s from just four appearances.
At the top of the money list before LIV Golf Greenbrier, where the circuit celebrates a big milestone in the first round, stood Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann.
His two wins alone this season will have boosted the bank balance of caddie Gary Matthews by around $800,000, but Niemann has been remarkably consistent all season, with seven other top-10 finishes and just two falling short of that standard, which left him with prize money of over $14.2m with three events to play.
Taking the likely percentages for each of those finishes into account, that means Matthews will now have earned over $1.2m for his work alongside the Chilean this season, and that’s without factoring in the additional earnings for tournaments beyond the circuit where Niemann has appeared, including the Majors.
Now deep into its third season, LIV Golf continues to offer more money than even the PGA Tour’s lucrative signature events can generally manage. While each of its players is rewarded just for teeing it up at the events, their caddies are also making serious money for their own efforts.
