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Here’s how much the caddies will earn at this week’s LIV Golf event

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As LIV prepares to start its fourth of eight arranged 2022 events, gambling site aceodds.com has revealed approximate take-home pay not for the players themselves, but for their loopers.

Enough has been written about the supposed amounts offered to players signing up for the alternative series, let alone the hundreds of millions turned down by the likes of Tiger Woods and Hideki Matsuyama, but their bag-men don’t do too bad out if it either. And they aren’t part of growing the game!

In July, several caddies and their employers came out to comment on conditions at the first trio of events.

Colin Byrne, Louis Oosthuizen’s bag-man, was gushing in his praise for the treatment at the initial event, held at the Centurion Club:

“…it has been ‘what can we do for you’ all week. They want to help us and make us happy. It’s been great to be included like this. We’ve been pampered and had nothing but a red-carpet treatment.”

Martin Kaymer’s side-kick, Craig Connelly, was also enthusiastic about the tour, saying, “This week (Centurion) has been just like a Ryder Cup. They flew me down from Glasgow and there was a guy waiting for me at Heathrow. Then they are taking care of us from here to the US Open. And if I was going to another LIV event after that, they would fly me there too.”

Compare that with an anonymous DP World Tour caddie, who spoke to golfmonthly.com in July.

“As a caddie if you wouldn’t want to go and work for LIV there’s something wrong with you,” he confided. “There isn’t a caddie out there that wouldn’t go and caddie for LIV in a heartbeat. I’m speaking for myself but if I went and asked every caddie on the European Tour, 99.9% would say ‘Yeah I’ll go and caddie on LIV in a heartbeat.’ Who doesn’t want to work less and get paid a shit load of money.”

The figures aren’t that hard to calculate, to be honest. For example, Branden Grace won the LIV Portland and around $4million – a lot of money even for a nine-time European/DP Tour winner and two-time PGA Tour champion.

But his caddie? Cliff Botha, a veteran of the bag used by Miguel Angel-Jiminez amongst many others, saw his bank balance increase by around $4-and-a-half big ones, that extra half earned by being in the winning team. 10% of a lot is a lot.

According to the figures, a winning caddie on the LIV series can earn as much in one week as in a standard season. Scottie Scheffler, according to the official PGA Tour stats, earned just over $14million in prize money in 2022 – 10% of that is less than three times what Botha and his other winning chums claimed at each LIV event.

With the average prize money for the season listed at $1,621,221, it’s no wonder that caddies are going loopy for LIV!

Estimated earnings for LIV caddies according to their man’s finishing position:

1st $400,000

2nd $148,750

3rd $105,000

4th $73,500

5th $68,250

6th $56,000

7th $47,250

8th $43,750

9th $40,600

10th $39,200

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‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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