Through our readers and social media followers here at The Caddie Network, we often receive questions related to the caddie profession. We’ve collected the most frequently asked questions from our readers and followers and tasked actual PGA Tour caddies to serve up the answers based on their experiences. Here are the answers — from PGA Tour caddies — to the questions we most often receive from you.
We all know the various ways players make it to the PGA Tour, but how do loopers make it to golf’s grandest stage and become a PGA Tour caddie? You might be surprised by the answer and grow a greater appreciation of what it takes to be walking alongside the world’s greatest players inside the ropes week in and week out.
How do you become a PGA Tour caddie?
I think if you polled the entire group of tour caddies, you’d get one of four answers on how they ended up on the PGA Tour:
- They knew a player who gave them a shot and it worked out.
- They’re a veteran and showed up on Tour a couple decades plus ago when it wasn’t so hard to pick up a player in the parking lot.
- They used to play at a high Tour level and they were in the know already.
- They went out to the minor leagues and worked their way up to the PGA Tour with a player.
Nowadays, its hard to get a player in the big leagues — almost impossible. The only real way now, without getting lucky and befriending a PGA Tour player who’s willing to take a chance on you, is to hit the Korn Ferry Tour. There is still high demand for good full-time caddies out there. Show up to an event, ask around, speak to players, and latch on to someone you think could be good down the road. This may take a while, and several bags until it sticks, but it’s almost the only way now. Ride a good, young player to the PGA Tour from the Korn Ferry.
Do you have more caddie questions? We have more caddie answers. From “How much money does a caddie make?” to “How do you read a greens book?,” our pros have you covered with over 20 FAQs – just click here.