What should I tip my caddie?

[hjimzaf]

On monday I'm playing a course that provides caddies for a $35 charge plus gratuities. How much should I tip. If it helps, this is the course.
http://www.chambersbaygolf.com

[DBake]

All depends on how well they do? You don't tip a server very well if they don't give you good service do you?

How you like this weather we are having?

Good Luck you are going to need it.

[Terrier]

When in doubt, overtip. Be observant and tip what your playing partners do. But don't ask (that's cheesey).

Golf is about good karma. If you stiff 'em, the golf gods viewing that course will curse your score.



JK

Play well...enjoy your round.

[hjimzaf]

i'm not too worried about the weather. it's supposed to be 60 and partly cloudy. I'm the only one in my foursome getting a caddie. the others are carrying their own bag. when i called the pro shop to reserve a caddie they said that the 35 dollars goes to the caddie. if he does a really good job do i give another 35, 40, 50?

[crankyoldguy]

i'm not too worried about the weather. it's supposed to be 60 and partly cloudy. I'm the only one in my foursome getting a caddie. the others are carrying their own bag. when i called the pro shop to reserve a caddie they said that the 35 dollars goes to the caddie. if he does a really good job do i give another 35, 40, 50?

I always use the 20% rule...more if they do a great job-

Not sure what the rules are with Caddy's, but most servers are on thier tips, as if they recieved 15%...whether they actually did or not...

[Ben]

$40 at the least.

[blue_crush]

wow I use to caddy when I was 12/13 and got about 4dollars depending on how fast the round was. and my tips were like 50c to 1.00. I played the course all the time and knew all the good shots and greens too.. those were the best times ever. if I had to say I would probably go with the 20%tip. a kid a burger king get like 8.00hr and this guy just carried your bag for like 4hrs and gave course hints.. 7 bucks doesn't seem like that much. maybe a 10 spot would be a better starting point... good topic

[doublesuited77]

i'd tip at least the base rate, more if they are really good, less if they aren't.

Also, i'd tip a bit less if they are carrying double.

[$2 Nassau]

Tough to say. This article says 50% of the caddie fee.

http://golf.about.com/cs/beginnersgu...olftipping.htm

But with a caddy fee of only $35, even if they get out 3 times a day, at the very most, that's only $105 a day. Assuming a 5 day work week that's not a lot of money. I would imagine they rely heavily on tips. That doesn't mean you have to just throw money at them though. If they do a good job and are not annoying or anything, I'd give around $60-$70 total.

I do agree with the article though in one respect, it says that if you are playing somewhere that has caddies, you've already decided to spend some money that day. So don't short the caddie to save a buck or two.

[bluenar9]

I've never had a caddy, but...

$35 goes to the caddy for 4 hours of work, is less than $10 an hour. I would try to make it so he gets at least $15/hour, which would be another $25 to make it a total of $60 for 4 hours of work.

[doublesuited77]

Tough to say. This article says 50% of the caddie fee.

So much of this depends on the caddie. If all your caddy does is carrying the bag and clean clubs, then $8 an hour is probably a rather appropriate rate. If they do more than more $$ are obviously warranted. Over the past 5-7 years, I think the quality of caddies at resort courses has declined significantly (with Bandon Dunes and Erin Hills as exceptions).

[dougj13]

im 16 and i caddy at a local country club.. our pay is all tips... minimum is around $50 but its common to get around $80 per bag ($160 altogether carrying two bags).. after looking through this threar i guess i am pretty fortunate for making over $45 an hour at my course considering rounds are in the low 3 hour range

[hjimzaf]

I gave him $85 which was a $50 tip. He was awesome. He cleaned my clubs, my ball, raked my traps, read the greens, etc, etc. His yardage book was full of info and he always had yardage and had great tips on how to play each hole. He said he's played the course a bunch of times and also loops at bandon dunes. I also told him not to give any info to my playing partners because there was money on the line and if they didn't want to pay for a caddie then they shouldn't get info. Ha ha!

[WhiteSoxFan]

Nice. Did you win enough off of your buddies to offset the cost of the tip?

[DBake]

I gave him $85 which was a $50 tip. He was awesome. He cleaned my clubs, my ball, raked my traps, read the greens, etc, etc. His yardage book was full of info and he always had yardage and had great tips on how to play each hole. He said he's played the course a bunch of times and also loops at bandon dunes. I also told him not to give any info to my playing partners because there was money on the line and if they didn't want to pay for a caddie then they shouldn't get info. Ha ha!

Since money was on the line, how did you turn out?

Also, what did you think of the new course?

[hjimzaf]

I lost 5 bucks. I shot a 95 which I will gladly take from this course. I loved the course. Great layout, nice challenge. Definitely worth the money.

[DDBowdoin]

I didn't look at the course link but: if the course is private and you are a guest DO NOT let your host pull the "oh roger don't worry, I'll take care of the caddie" because he is cheap and will not give as much as you would. Don't let someone get screwed over after lugging double bags around for 4 1/2 hours. This happens because he is used to having some poor kid carry his bag, caddies are really a luxury (at least here they are) so you just have to remember that your caddie isn't out there because he just loves to carry bags, he needs to support him/herself.