Proper tip for a caddie

[Evan]

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Also consider what type of bag he is carrying. Are you one of the players who thinks he needs a 10 inch Staff bag with 50 balls, 5 gloves, an extra pair of shoes, rain suit, umbrella, 4 towels, and 3 gatorade bottles filled with water? Give a little more or save the caddies back and take some crap out.

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Bring a light bag with a stand, less than 6 balls and no extra clothes/unresaonable accessories like an umbrella on a sunny day. If you can't follow these rules you should pay the caddie DOUBLE the highest number anyone tells you. I'm not kidding.

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you really think a person carrying a heavier than usual bag should be paid twice as much as usual? Obviously its a pain in the ass for the caddy to lug around some extra [censored], but do you honestly believe a person that carries around some extra weight should pay their caddy double? Are you on crack? I mean I caddied for 7 years and I would be plenty happy if I got paid an extra 10 bucks for carrying a heavy bag. Why does the advice in this thread suck so much?

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People that bring 2 dozen golf balls, rain suits/umbrellas on sunny days, play with giant cart/staff bags should definitely pay their caddies more. It's all unnecessary crap that does nothing but make the caddie's day worse out of your own laziness. To me, it would be like taking your car into the mechanic to get serviced, waiting until they put it up on the rack, and then making them take it down because you left a pack of gum inside.

I caddied for 5 years and like you said, most people don't pay extra for crap like this. That doesn't mean they shouldn't though. You say you'd be plenty happy to get $10 extra for someone with a terrible bag. Would you rather do that or get paid normally for someone with a reasonable bag. I'd much rather lose the extra $10 to not lug a suitcase around all day.

[Butcho22]

^^QFT^^

I only caddied for a short time period but that was something I noticed right away. A lot of golfers don't play that much, and they have their entire supply of balls/tees/rain gear/extra shoes etc. sitting in their bag year round. For the love of god, take that crap out if you don't need it for this round.

Funny related story...

When I caddied for the first time I was assigned to a double. I rode on the back of the cart to the first tee thinking how nice it was they had a cart! All four golfers teed off. My two guys starting walking up the fairway and I called out, "You want me to drive it up?"
They lol'd and said to park the cart right where it was and start walking.
WTF?
So I grabbed both bags and started up the fairway. (These bags were [censored] heavy) What sucked the worst about it was one of my guys was slicing it right all day, and the other guy was hooking it left!
I spent the entire day running back and forth from one side to the other. And when you run with two sets up clubs, you can't just full out run...you have to sort of squat as you run to keep the clubs from banging around.
The next few days my legs and shoulders were [censored] jello.
So yeah, what Evan said.

[sandycove]

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The two courses I have caddied at (Augusta National and Sage Valley) both have "change-out" bags to deal with this problem; I think if the players bag weighs more than ~30 lbs the caddy takes the clubs out of the heavier bag and places them into a light carry bag. I thought that this was pretty standard.

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1. Never heard of this. Great idea.

2. Pet peeve: One or two guys in a foursome have a caddy. The others walk, carry their own sticks or pull a trolley. Caddy still gives advice, chats, hunts for balls, pulls the pin. Do the other lads think to tip for these services at the end of the round? Never. So now, I simply ask them to.

I had a loop for a senior tour player a few years back for a pro-am. Did the amateurs toke me for my services? Hardly. (The pro wasn't too generous, either. My compensation was to be some unspecified percentage of the purse, if any.) In fairness, it was a writing assignment, although I was a fully qualified looper with significant course knowledge.

3. My first loop was in 1956. Age 12. Had to wait all day in the caddy shack from dawn to dusk for a week doing my initiation penance. Finally got a little old man's late in the day little old bag, a single, in a fivesome. It was the third time out that day for the other two senior double loopers. One leather-tough old caddie in the group just had one arm, his left (and he'd been right-handed). He could handle two bags, extra balls, the pin, and roll a cigarette, all at what seemed like the same time. He'd noodle in the muck of the course pond at sundown for lost balls and could beat most two-armed players at the club golfing his ball.

So, my man hits one in the tall right rough on the long second hole and my worst nightmare looms -- a lost ball! And I am marking this short hitter's ball flight like a hawk. I go straight for the site, drop the bag, and start a furious hunt. Two caddies and five players join me. Minutes go by. I am frantic. Then the one-armed man has a thought, walks over to my man's bag. lifts it up, and there's the ball... the mortification of a lifetime.

Your man might have tipped me a quarter after the round, out of mercy and out of his pocket. The caddie master would have stolen more than that from my fee; we had no access to the tickets members signed. He had a piece of all the action -- candy bars, sodas, used balls, card games, and made a little book for the members, too.

[Evan]

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What sucked the worst about it was one of my guys was slicing it right all day, and the other guy was hooking it left!

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If you're doing this help the caddie out and take a club while you're walking up the fairway. If you're in the [censored] and there's no way you're going to hit it near the green, just take whatever club you like to lay up with. 9 times out of 10 you don't need to be anywhere near the ball to make this decision. If you're on the green and near the caddie while you're walking up the fairway, take your putter. There's a good chance that the caddie is going to have to rake a bunker or get the pin or something else that won't allow him to hand you the putter immediately when you step on the green, there's nothing he can do about it.

I could go on but I'll leave it there for now. If you help the caddie with basic stuff like this the round will be much better for both of you.

[CrazyEyez]

I'm playing at a private club on Monday for a work event. Last year we had one forecaddie per foursome. He looked like he was about 14. I don't remember him running ahead to spot balls. He wiped off our clubs after shots, raked traps, replaced divots. Occasionally we asked for tips on where to hit, and he wasn't much help at all, to the point that we joked amongst ourselves. (Not to be mean; just that we were hoping for a little guidance.)

What is reasonable? $20/player? I really don't feel he's worth more than that, unless you guys tell me that's way too low.