How can I become a caddy on a professional tour?

[acj990]

(Maybe this has been posted in the past, but I haven't seen anything.)

Does anyone know how someone gets a Caddy position on either the PGA or Nationwide tour? Is there a 'Caddy School'? I've always wondered how someone gets a caddy spot...Anyone know?

I figured that the golfer picks the caddy out a group of friends, usually the best "line reader" of the group. Or get's hooked up with a caddy who's been around for awhile...

[Cussin hacker]

Go to PGAtour.com and see if there is any info on it. An older friend of mine I play with has a son who caddies the PGA and Nationwide tours, but I've never ask how he got started. He has some good stories of who are the A-holes and who are great guys to caddie for though. If I remember right Tim Herron was not one of the good. Good luck!

[WUTiger]

Upscale country clubs which offer caddies for the members sometimes serve as "farm teams" for the pro tours.

Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis has a formal caddie training program, and can hook up its better caddies with tour opportunities. Bellerive hosted the 1965 U.S. Open, and several other pro and amateur tournaments since then. 2008 BMW Championship was the most recent.

The surge in electric cart usage in the late 1960s pretty well wiped out the caddie at midlevel country clubs. Only a handful of St. Louis area clubs still have caddies.

[jamo]

Go to the swankiest courses you know and see if they have a caddy program. It would help if they host a PGA or even Nationwide TOUR stop. Nationwide might be even better because the players don't have high profile caddies yet.

[goblue107501]

Most of it is luck and/or knowing someone. If you were to go to any PGA or Nationwide Tour event there will be several experienced caddies without a steady job just 'hanging out' hoping that someone will need a loop for the week. That might lead to steady work if they get lucky.

It isn't as glamorous as one might think. Most pay their own way for everything. Unless you name is Stevie, Fluff, or Bones, you probably don't make too much either. Only a few dozen guys probably make really good money. The rest are just like you an me, except they don't have great job security or benefits.

Not trying to talk you out of anything. Just saying it is really hard to get into it at a high level, and even harder to make a great living at it.

[IndianScout]

here ya go..

link..

[Cussin hacker]

That's some serous cash for some of the top Caddies. I had no idea they could make that much. How far from the Quad cities are you? The TPC course in IL. the John Deere is played on may be a start.

[nuck81]

With only 10% of earnings, you either have to make a whole lotta loops or get hooked up with someone that is awfully good.

If your pro makes $500,000 a year in earnings you're only getting $50,000. Most caddies pay for their own travel, food, lodging and get none of the perks of their players.

[Cussin hacker]

With only 10% of earnings, you either have to make a whole lotta loops or get hooked up with someone that is awfully good.

Nothing is guaranteed in life. There is always risk with reward. To many people play it safe in life...I say live your dream and to hell with the rest.

[Titleist_ProV1x]

(Maybe this has been posted in the past, but I haven't seen anything.)

You need to join the PCA (professional caddies association) to work the PGA or your father, brother, personal friend ....etc,etc, needs to have a card and you can work for them

[thehelper]

I have an old friend who's been on tour for Lord knows how many years and he feeds me all the "gossip" I put in my posts, at least when he returns my emails or is working (he doesn't work every tourny).
It's a "who you know" deal, forget caddying on the PGA. You can caddy on the Nationwide in the foreign countrys, that's fairly easy. You get your feet wet there. The Nationwide down in Panama is a good place. The LPGA is fairly easy to get into. Again, you need to hook up with some caddy on the tour, make a friend. Once you caddy, you got it. You just need that break. Go to the next Nationwide or LPGA tourney near your home and mill around with the caddies. They all drink and gamble, so if you do any of that, let me know......

[acj990]

That's some serous cash for some of the top Caddies. I had no idea they could make that much. How far from the Quad cities are you? The TPC course in IL. the John Deere is played on may be a start.

I'm actually only about an hour 1/2 away from Deere Run. A couple years ago, I did the IBM Shot-link volunteering and got to meet a lot of the caddies during a rain delay. I thought, well, if my game isn't good enough, why not try the caddy thing. I talked with Vijay Singh's caddy for awhile, seemed like a good guy. He said that Daniel Chopra was the biggest d-bag on tour, and wasn't shy about telling me.

[clubchamp]

I played in a pro am once with juli inkster and she asked where I was from, where I went to college etc. So I told her and it turned out her caddy went to the same college as me so I asked him how did you end up on the bag. He said that he caddied at a club and the lpga played a tourney there inkster was new on tour and didn't have an every day caddie so she got him for a practice round. She than proceeded to go on to finish in the top 5 and hired him that monday. I don't think it is quite that simple anymore but if you caddy at a place that holds a nationwide event a lot of those guys don't travel with a caddy. I will say he did talk about how tough it was in the start because of the travel and the money wasn't there needless to say he was glad he stuck it out.

[Shanks A Million]

Someone once said, in regards to just how good tour pros were, that a scratch golfer "wasn't good enough to carry a tour pro's bag." It's true. Many tour caddies are well better than scratch, and a good deal used to be competitive golfers. Some are not, of course, and some are merely friends and relatives, but the rest are almost universally great golfers.

[Ole_Tom_Morris]

Time to mention the book, "Who's Your Caddy." There are some funny books written about golf -- Plimpton's "The Bogeyman" comes to mind -- but Reilly's book is right up there. This review, http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0767917405.asp , doesn't get to the humor, some of it off-color, that is on every page.

You know, it might be harder to be a successful caddy than a pro player. The caddy has to know the course, golf in general, and his player better than the player knows himself. To socialize, keep his ear to the ground for info, to filter good info from bad, to psychologize his player, and then, to lug a heavy bag aroud the course. I have joked that instead of basing a new sports drink on Tiger Woods, one ought to be endorsed by caddies; they are the guys who are really sweating and strategizing out there.