For the man who operates as Xander Schauffele's caddie, Austin Kaiser, 2024 has been pretty sweet. Working with his long-time friend, Kaiser has watched Schauffele cement his standing in the game by going on to win, and win big, this year.
While Scottie Scheffler has more overall victories than the Californian (six), Schauffele ended the campaign with one more Major - having collected his first ever at the PGA Championship before quickly going on to notch his second via The Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Sprinkled in among those red-letter days have been 19 top-25 finishes, 14 top-10 results, and three runner-up places in 20 starts, with an extraordinary mound of cash piling up as a result.
So far in 2024, Schauffele has earned approximately $24.35 million, although he is second to PGA Tour money leader Scheffler by almost $11 million, if Comcast Business Tour Top-10 Bonuses are not taken into account...
Although Schauffele has made it look very easy at times, the man himself has admitted on several occasions that his success is very much a team triumph and could not have been achieved without his trusted sidekick.
And Kaiser - who has been Schauffele's looper throughout his entire PGA Tour career so far - has likely been extremely well compensated for his hard work, too.
It is widely believed that the standard cut of a player's prize money the caddie receives out on tour will range from 5-10%, depending on how high up the leaderboard they end up. It is usually around 10% for a victory and drops to 7% for a top-10 finish - anything between 11th and making the cut could well be in the area of 5%.
Bag staff are often paid a yearly salary or kept on a retainer anyway, with each week offering a fresh chance for an extra bump in their earnings. With all that said, Kaiser could well have collected an extra $1.44 million in 2024 alone.
That is, remarkably, well short of the amount of money that Ted Scott - Scheffler's caddie - has potentially picked up this year with Scott collecting roughly $2.7 million through 19 events.
Meanwhile, Joaquin Niemann's looper, Gary Matthews banked a possible $800,000 in just two events earlier this season after the Chilean won both LIV Golf Mayakoba and LIV Golf Jeddah. That figure has only continued to rise since.
Turning attention back to Schauffele and Kaiser, the Californian started 2024 with a hat-trick of top-10s at The Sentry (T10), the American Express (T3), and the Farmers Insurance Open (T9). As a result, he accumulated $1,401,850 and - using the aforementioned theory - passed on $98,129.50 to Kaiser in January alone.
February brought a rare off week for the 30-year-old as he ended T54 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am - which was shortened to 54 holes as a result of stormy weather off the Californian coast. Schauffele secured $42,500 after making the cut, $2,125 of which was likely passed on to his looper.
Between the Genesis Invitational and The Masters, Schauffele generated four top-10s from five starts as a worst result of T25 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational ruined his consistent streak of high finishes. In that run was a T2 at The Players which brought in a paycheck of almost $2 million, with Kaiser possibly rewarded to the tune of $265,534 in a five-event spell.
Following a relatively disappointing T18 at the RBC Heritage and a T23 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans which collectively earned Schauffele $243,863 - roughly $12,193.15 for Kaiser - the American finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the Wells Fargo Championship to land $2.16 million. And in the very next start - the PGA Championship - Schauffele went out and won it, collecting a $3.33 million check. For Kaiser, he could well have scooped $484,200 in a fortnight.
Two more top-10s at the Memorial Tournament (T8) and the US Open (T7) earned the nine-time PGA Tour winner $1,218,289 - $85,280 of which could have been passed on to his bagman.
This lucrative season for both continued via a couple of top-20 results at the Travelers Championship (T13) and the Scottish Open (T15) which helped Schauffele pick up $530,800 and his caddie likely take $26,540.
It was then significantly improved by the pair's second Major success of 2024 at The Open Championship. Schauffele collected $3.1 million as a result of his victory and Kaiser may have seen $310,000 of that.
And in the opening tournament of the FedEx Cup Playoffs - the FedEx St Jude Championship - Scheffler ended T2 alongside Viktor Hovland to earn $1.76 million for himself, $112,000 of which could well have been sent on to Kaiser.
The very next week, Schauffele ended in a tie for fifth at the BMW Championship and picked up a check for $728,750, with a potential $51,012.50 kept aside for Kaiser.
So far this season, Kaiser's total bonus payment could well stand at $1,447,059 from 20 events.
