Ted Scott v Steve Williams – Which Caddie Has Earned More Money?

It was oft repeated during Tiger Woods’ peak years as a golfer that the highest paid sportsperson in New Zealand was Steve Williams.

Williams caddied for Woods from 1999 to 2011 and was on the bag for 13 of his 15 Major titles. Williams, as Tiger’s caddie, received a percentage of Woods’ winnings.

Williams, who was born in Wellington in December 1963, had taken up golf as a young child, and had got his handicap down to 2 by the time he was 13. He also caddied a lot and, also by age 13, had realised that he enjoyed this more than playing.

Teenage start of career

At the 1976 New Zealand Open he caddied for five-time Major winner Peter Thomson. They came third. Williams became a full-time caddie in his teens, often for Australian golfers, and had a spell as Greg Norman’s bag man.

But Williams was working for Raymond Floyd when Tiger’s then coach, Butch Harmon, asked him if he would become Tiger’s caddie in succession to Mike ‘Fluff’ Cowan.

Tiger was obsessed with breaking Jack Nicklaus’ Majors total and saw Williams as his ideal partner in this enterprise. Woods had already won one Major, the 1997 Masters, when Williams became his caddie.

In the final round of the 1999 PGA Championship Tiger Woods was leading, seemingly heading for his second Major title. But with the teenaged Sergio Garcia chasing hard, he began to falter down the final stretch: Woods had double bogeyed the 13th after bogeying the 12th and then bogeyed the 16th.

Garcia was in the group ahead of him on the course, a shot behind, with Woods needing to make his par putt on 17 to retain the lead.

Williams recounts: “Tiger read the putt and said it’s outside the hole. But I assured him it was inside the hole. He knocked that putt in. In a big moment, I had overruled Tiger and I was correct. That's where a huge amount of our trust that followed in the subsequent years was born.” Tiger parred the last hole to win the Major by a single stroke.

But Tiger did not always listen to Williams.

When Williams told his employer to withdraw from the 2008 US Open as Woods had a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee as well as a double stress fracture in his tibia. Tiger, in blunt language, told his caddie not only was he going to play, but he was going to win. He did, indeed, do both of those things.

Fringe benefits

But Woods needed time off afterwards to have surgery. With no bag work for Williams, Woods offered him the use of his 155-foot yacht Privacy for a week to take him and his family anywhere in the world he fancied, explaining, “you helped pay for it, Steve.”

This yacht, which was built in 2004, had cost Tiger a reputed $20m.

Williams won 13 Majors with Woods and he subsequently won another when on the bag of Adam Scott. He has now retired from full-time caddying.

When Williams split from Woods, it was amidst some acrimony. But time has healed their relationship which had once been close – Woods had been best man at Williams’ wedding.

Earlier this year Williams in an interview with Sky Sports said: “I was very fortunate to carry for one of the greatest players ever and be part of some golfing history. He was an incredible guy to work for and he was very generous to myself and my entire family."

If Woods’ was the bag you wanted to be on then, Scottie Scheffler is whose bag is likely to prove the most lucrative for the current generation of caddies. Scheffler’s caddie is Ted Scott.

Great Scott

Scott had caddied for Bubba Watson for 15 years, and they won two Masters together. But that partnership ended in September 2021.

Scott, who also teaches golf online, had intended to focus more on his teaching after giving up Watson’s bag, having spent 21 years caddying – before Watson he had caddied for Paul Azinger and Grant Waite.

Scheffler knew Scott from attending bible study together and from when he had partnered Watson in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Scheffler explained of Scott that: “I just think the world of him as a person so that was why I was attracted to him just being a potential good partner for me out on the course.”

So Scheffler asked him to be his caddie, telling him: “I really want to work with a Christian. That’s how I try to live my life.”

Of the decision of whether to become Scheffler’s caddy, Scott explains that he “asked my family to pray upon it for a week. They came back and said to go caddie for Scottie.”

Scheffler had had an unusual career up to then – he had risen to world number 11 and become a multi-millionaire without having won on Tour.

Then, in his fifth tournament with Scott as his caddie, Scheffler finally notched that PGA Tour win, at the WM Phoenix Open. Scott however was keen not to take any credit: “This dude was a world-class player before I stepped foot on the bag,” he said. “Don’t make it like I have some special potion because I don’t.”

Caddie percentages

It is up to each player-caddie relationship to determine their fee structure. Typically a caddie gets a set fee for a tournament, said to range from $1,500 to $4,000, plus a percentage of the player’s winnings.

Scheffler and Scott, like most pros and caddies, keep their private arrangement private. But a typical agreement among tour pros and their caddies is 10% of the prize money for a win; 7% for a top-10 finish and 5% otherwise.

But Tiger was rumoured to pay Williams a straight 10% on all his prize money regardless of finishing position. If so, as during their 12-year partnership Woods earned $88.3 million in prize money, this would give Williams a $8.83m share.

On top of this, Williams also had his own sponsorship deals as well as his tournament fees.

But there has never been a more lucrative time to be a caddie than now, as never before has there been so much prize money in the game.

Sam Snead shares with Tiger Woods the record number of wins on the PGA Tour. But Woods’ official total of prize money won is almost 170 times that of Snead’s.

Jack Nicklas has won more Majors than anyone else, but in the PGA Tour career earnings list he stands in 339th place with $5,734,031.

Tiger Woods heads this list, with $120,999,166. But 29-year-old Scheffler, with 19 wins to Woods’ 82, is already up to $99,453,136.

Scheffler made $29,228,357 in 2024, with seven wins and 16 top-10s in his 19 starts. In 2025 he made $27,659,550. In only three of his 20 starts that year did he finish outside of the top-10, and he had six wins.

My colleague Jonny Leighfield has calculated that Scott is likely to have earned, simply on his cut of the prize money, $2,430,414 in 2025 and $5,338,318 in 2024.

If Ted Scott has not already exceeded Steve Williams’ earnings, it is likely he will do so fairly soon.