Being a caddie may look a tiresome job, but it can all be worth it if you're looping for the winner come the end of Sunday. One man who certainly has done his fair share of that is four-time Major champion Rory McIlroy.
Since 2017, McIlroy has had his best friend, Harry Diamond on the bag. The pair grew up together in Holywood, County Down and have been friends since their junior days at Holywood Golf Club.
Diamond was a good player in his own right, representing Ireland as a youngster, but has been McIlroy's full-time companion inside the ropes since the 34-year-old split with JP Fitzgerald after eight years and four Majors together.
Although McIlrory and Diamond haven't yet been able to add to the former's Major tally, they have won 12 times together on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour combined as well as winning both the Race to Dubai and FedEx Cup on two separate occasions.
Alongside all the other top-ten finishes and Major championship near-misses, that adds up to quite a bit of prize money. But how much does Diamond take home personally? Let's take an estimate...
Well for starters, players and caddies pay for their own expenses and loopers will have a baseline of what they’ll make at a PGA Tour event that week.
“I think 2,000 a week is pretty average, but everything is worked out between you and the player,” veteran caddie of over 25 years Brennan Little told Golf Monthly.
“After a few years you’ll get a raise. Or you’ll get bonuses at the end of the year. It just varies by the player. I think generally if you were looking for a number it would be $2,000 a week, and then 7 to 8 per cent and 10 per cent.”
The percentages Little mentions at the end is the caddie's additional wage that comes from a proportion of the player's earnings in a given tournament. Normally players will give their caddie 7-8 per cent on a usual week and upgrade that figure to 10 per cent should they win.
With those figures to hand, you can begin to make an estimate about the kind of money that Diamond would make each year. Let's take 2023 as an example.
McIlroy played in 22 events across the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, with his two wins coming at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January and the Genesis Scottish Open in July. Those wins alone pocketed him $1,530,000 and $1,575,000 respectively.
In total, the Northern Irishman brought in just over $12,000,000 in prize money on the PGA Tour, with approximately $1,936,000 coming from the DP World Tour.
Therefore, given the average caddie earnings - a $2,000 weekly baseline pay along with an cut 8% for a regular finish and 10% for a win - that would mean Diamond earned roughly $1,275,000 this year according to our estimates.
However, there is more.
McIlroy's impressive performances have also seen the four-time Major champion bring in two FedEx Cups and two Race to Dubai titles whilst the pair have been working together.
In 2023, for example, McIlroy won his fifth Race to Dubai crown, pocketing a £1.6m (nearly $2m) bonus in the process. Diamond's cut of that - expected to be around 10 per cent - would therefore see him take home an extra £160,000 ($200,000).
In 2022, when McIlroy hunted down Scottie Scheffler in spectacular fashion to win the FedEx Cup, he was the recipient of an $18 winners cheque, with Diamond receiving around $1.8m. Not bad for an afternoon's work.
All these figures are merely estimates and there are a plethora of unknowns and other contractual agreements that we couldn't possibly be privy to.
Regardless, what's clear is that there's plenty of money to be made in being a caddie for the top echelon of PGA Tour golfers.
