The Players Championship is one of the most prestigious tournaments in professional golf and has a roll of honor to match, with the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy having all claimed the title on multiple occasions.
But as any great player will tell you, they would be nothing without their caddie as the looper not only takes a physical burden off their shoulders but sometimes an emotional one, too.
And with so many incredible perks for winning The Players on the line this week, needing to share the toll of such a draining week is vitally important.
However, the reward for coming out on top at TPC Sawgrass' Stadium Course is the lion's share of one of the biggest prize money payouts in the sport.
Whoever follows in McIlroy's shoes by hoisting the gold trophy will earn themselves an eye-watering $4.5 million before various factors like taxes reduce how much they really earn.
Aside from tax, one of the key takeaways a pro will have to consider is how much he shares with his caddie.
Some players hand out 10% to their bagman if they win, around 7-8% if they finish inside the top-10 and roughly 5% if they make the cut but don't break onto the first page of the leaderboard.
For other pros, it can be a case of giving a 10% bonus to their caddie no matter what. The figure is decided upon by each pair.
Therefore, working on the most common approach, the winning caddie at The Players Championship should earn a bonus of $450,000 once all is said and done.
That won't be their total earnings for the week, though, with most loopers either paid an annual salary anyway or given a weekly base rate which has the opportunity to be topped up based on performance.
As you may have worked out, it can be particularly lucrative to be a caddie for a top professional with millions of dollars in bonus money to be won every season.
In 2025, both Scottie Scheffler's caddie Ted Scott and Rory McIlroy's assistant Harry Diamond collected around $2 million in tournament prize money bonuses alone, while Scott picked up over $5 million as Scheffler totally dominated in 2024.
