While so much has been made about the new life and riches former PGA Tour golfers have made when switching to LIV Golf, it seems the move has also been huge for their trusty caddies too.
Often the forgotten men in golf, a player’s bag man goes under the radar, eating and staying separately in far more down to earth places than their star players get to frequent.
However, LIV Golf’s huge wealth means that everything is now taken care of, and even the loopers get all expenses paid for - from travel to events, accommodation and food at events to even the same for family members.
“I think the way there’s food for the caddies, the way they’re treated like human beings, I think that’s nice as well, because I’ve seen both sides, and not everybody’s seen both sides,” said Brooks Koepka after the final event in Miami.
Koepka has trotted out the “treated like humans” line before, and while Dustin Johnson’s brother and caddie Austin did not aim the same criticism towards the PGA Tour, he also spoke of how life really is different for caddies in LIV Golf.
“You feel more included,” said Austin Johnson. “The little stuff, like just being able to go into the player dining and eat, and my wife can go in there and hang out and they let her go in all the Club 54’s and get some air conditioning and get a snack, stuff like that.
“The Tour was great to us, it was a great place to work, LIV is just better quality of work for caddies. I’m the most-spoiled caddie in the history of golf, don’t get me wrong, but like a lot of these guys, to have all the expenses paid for, to show up to work and know they’re gonna get a paycheck, it’s life changing. It really is.
“I’m not trying to talk bad about the PGA Tour, I’m just trying to highlight how great it is out here. I sound like a spoiled little kid but it’s just nice to be done with the round and I can go sit up in the air conditioning, have lunch with Dustin, have a decent meal versus walking over to some tent and hoping there’s food in there.”
Johnson used the example of Pat Perez’s caddie Mike Hartford as an example of how life has changed for the men on the bags.
“Pat Perez’s caddie, he worked a few years out on Tour where he might not even have broken even,” said Johnson.
“Flying around the world 30 weeks a year, sharing hotels, sharing rental cars, sharing pizzas, working your a** off and losing money.
"That shouldn’t happen in America, especially not from a corporation that makes hundreds of millions of dollars off the guys out there working. That’s not right in my opinion.”
