Who Is Dustin Johnson’s Caddie?

America's Dustin Johnson has his younger brother, Austin, on his bag

Dustin Johnson's caddie Austin
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mark Townsend
By Mark Townsend
published

Who Is Dustin Johnson’s Caddie?

The 2020 Masters champion and his caddie are very close. Austin is his younger brother, and the pair have been together since late 2013. After graduating from the College of Charleston, Austin was considering a career in pharmaceutical sales before he got the call from his brother - and it's all gone rather well for the both of them. 

There was the odd alliance but Team Johnson was formed for proper late in 2013 after Dustin’s previous caddie, Bobby Brown, couldn't travel to Australia for the Perth International due to birth of his child.

VIDEO: THING'S YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT DUSTIN JOHNSON

Brown had been Johnson’s caddie since mid-2008, which was the American's rookie season on the PGA Tour. They shared four victories together, including two AT&T National Pro-Am titles and the 2010 BMW Championship.

Dustin also had Tiger Woods' current caddie, Joe LaCava, on the bag for a while but this was not a long-term partnership. Following a solid finish in Perth, Austin was asked to caddie for his brother again at the WGC-HSBC tournament in Shanghai, which Dustin ended up winning by three from England's Ian Poulter. Since then the partnership has not looked back.

Austin Johnson celebrates

(Image credit: Getty Images )

"You travel with your caddie, eat with your caddie, spend all day with your caddie," says Dustin. “It needs to be someone you like, someone you trust. I’m never gonna have with anyone else what I have with him."

Since making his brother his full-time caddie, Dustin and Austin have won 17 PGA Tour tournaments together including DJ's first major at the 2016 US Open at Oakmont, and his second at the 2020 Masters. The former led to Austin being crowned PGA Tour Caddie of the Year for 2016.

In terms of speaking about their relationship Austin keeps things to himself, though there are plenty of good stories about the pair. In a piece on GOLF Magazine Dustin had a mid-range putt with a few feet of right-to-left break at the 2016 Ryder Cup. After speaking with his brother he started the ball left and missed it by six feet. "Awww, man,” Dustin said. “I had the [green-reading] book upside down."

How Much Does Dustin Johnson's Caddie Make?

When Dustin Johnson won the 2020 FedEx $15m bonus his younger brother picked up 10 per cent of the pot (maybe more given they're brothers?). That amount was more than the winner’s share in 24 of the 37 PGA Tour events played in the previous season, including his brother's victory at The Travelers and would have ranked him in the top 500 for the PGA Tour’s career all-time money list.

Austin has followed his boss onto LIV Golf, and was on the bag when his brother won in Boston in September 2022, for which he banked $4m for his victory and an additional $750,000 for being part of the winning team. You can only imagine that the bag man's bank balance would have profited from DJ's lucrative 2022 LIV Golf season, too.

Topics
Dustin Johnson
Mark Townsend
Mark Townsend
Contributing editor

Mark has worked in golf for over 20 years having started off his journalistic life at the Press Association and BBC Sport before moving to Sky Sports where he became their golf editor on skysports.com. He then worked at National Club Golfer and Lady Golfer where he was the deputy editor and he has interviewed many of the leading names in the game, both male and female, ghosted columns for the likes of Robert Rock, Charley Hull and Dame Laura Davies, as well as playing the vast majority of our Top 100 GB&I courses. He loves links golf with a particular love of Royal Dornoch and Kingsbarns. He is now a freelance, also working for the PGA and Robert Rock. Loves tour golf, both men and women and he remains the long-standing owner of an horrific short game. He plays at Moortown with a handicap of 6.


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