What are we tipping caddies are resort courses these days? Caddies - weigh in and be honest.

[King_Slender]

Heading to Wisconsin and the caddie fees are $55 per player at Erin Hills and $100 per caddie at Sand Valley plus gratuity.  

 

Erin Hills recommends a $75+ per player gratuity, no recommendation on Sand Valley, but assume similar.  Have played Erin a few times in corporate outings and just throw the caddie a $100 bill, which seems fine.  Trying to make it easy for the guys on this trip to just allocate that money and not think about it at the end of the round.  

 

Caddies - weigh in and be honest.  What amount to you feel guys are being cheap and what amount are you thinking "This guy is an idiot and has too much money to throw around, but I'll take it."

[jvincent]

We tipped our caddy at Bandon $60 per round per bag.

[elwhippy]

Yikes. I shall stick to carrying my own bag. 

[third-times-a-charm]

7 minutes ago, elwhippy said:

Yikes. I shall stick to carrying my own bag. 

Most private/resort courses require a caddy for non-members if not with a member and you're a paying room+golf customer.

[smashdn]

I don't want to derail your thread but with a caddie fee, that I am assuming none makes its way back to the caddie themselves, what are you actually paying for then if not the caddie?  The managing and "match making" or the lost revenue from no carts?

[CSagan]

Caddied at a high end private place for a few years. $100 man on top of caddy fee is solid. Sometimes you'd get a pile of money...sometimes it would be $20 on the low end.

[CSagan]

1 minute ago, smashdn said:

I don't want to derail your thread but with a caddie fee, that I am assuming none makes its way back to the caddie themselves, what are you actually paying for then if not the caddie?  The managing and "match making" or the lost revenue from no carts?

We used to get 100% of our caddy fee minus $5 per player to the caddy master (kind of a racket on his end imo but was a cush job at the time).

[puresurfr]

2 hours ago, CSagan said:

Caddied at a high end private place for a few years. $100 man on top of caddy fee is solid. Sometimes you'd get a pile of money...sometimes it would be $20 on the low end.

 

So its $100 tip and a $100 Caddie fee is acceptable ?

 

[wolverine_man]

Last two caddies I've had (Pebble and Erin), I've done $100/ bag for the tip. Never a complaint or akwardness, and the caddies were excellent.  I have seen a caddie once ask another golfer if the tip was for both bags, or just the one. That is awkward, and surely not a good sign.  

[bcjim]

On one hand,  it's outrageous, $150 on top of the green fee.  On the other hand, it is 4-5h of work.

 

 

[King_Slender]

14 hours ago, bcjim said:

On one hand,  it's outrageous, $150 on top of the green fee.  On the other hand, it is 4-5h of work.

 

 

 

I kind of agree, but on golf trips I don't even think of the costs that way.  

 

When we went to Pebble and played Pasatiempo, Poppy Hills, Spyglass, Spanish Bay and Pebble, 5 nights, all in was $3500-5000 a man.  That was just the cost of the trip - couldn't think of it like "OMG, this round costs $525."  

 

 

[StudentGolfer4]

The thing you need to figure out is what portion of the caddie fee actually goes to the caddies. How much to tip depends on this completely. 
 

If you have a good caddie don’t let them go home with the minimum. Most likely an extra 20-40 bucks will mean a lot more to the caddie than it will to you. 
 

Caddie speaking. Top 100 Midwest place. Not a resort so I’m not quite what you’re looking for but still. At my place, it’s all cash straight to the caddie, no caddie fee inside or anything like that. 100 a bag is standard. Haven’t gotten anything less in 4-5 years. Becoming a bit more common to get $120 or so. A few members will go over the top but I tend to think that’s more because of the relationship we have built over the years and it’s not their standard tip to resort caddies. 

 

[Hawkeye77]

Seems out of proportion to the caddie fee and who knows if they aren’t paid otherwise by the course? Following up on Pebble, the caddie fee was north of $100 when I played and I tipped the caddie $125 because he was a friend of a relative and was a lot of fun, but he said I was pretty generous and nothing like that was expected - some do tip more and most tipped less. 
 

We were going to play the Straits and the Irish this summer, had it all booked last winter but strayed looking at various fees involved and realized it wasn’t worth Pebble-ish money for me to play them.  Rather save the money for airfare and spend it towards better courses for a lot less money across the pond. 

[jth3333]

Typically an inch to an inch and a half. 

[harveythomas]

I don’t want a caddy.  Made to use one on a trip to Brazil last year.   He didn’t speak English so was no use at all and definitely didn’t help me play better.  It was too hot anyway so a buggy would’ve been vastly preferable and just using a GPS.  
 

The club said we had to have one as we didn’t know the course.  Naturally they could’ve just put a sign post up for the two times the next tee directions weren’t obvious.  
 

I gave him a 20 dollar equivalent tip as well as the 40 dollar cost.   Think it’s probably a reasonable rate for 3 hours work in Brazil but I had no idea what a suitable tip was as I don’t usually use a caddy.  
 

My club at home has them as an option but never used one there yet and haven’t felt the need.  I enjoy trying to read my own putts and making my own shot and club selections.  I wouldn’t want someone to do that for me as it’s part of the challenge of the game as a handicap golfer.  

[sui generis]

At the Old Course, he was delighted with $20.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, that was more than 50 years ago. 😉

[smashdn]

On 6/30/2023 at 11:15 PM, StudentGolfer4 said:

The thing you need to figure out is what portion of the caddie fee actually goes to the caddies. How much to tip depends on this completely. 
 

If you have a good caddie don’t let them go home with the minimum. Most likely an extra 20-40 bucks will mean a lot more to the caddie than it will to you. 
 

Caddie speaking. Top 100 Midwest place. Not a resort so I’m not quite what you’re looking for but still. At my place, it’s all cash straight to the caddie, no caddie fee inside or anything like that. 100 a bag is standard. Haven’t gotten anything less in 4-5 years. Becoming a bit more common to get $120 or so. A few members will go over the top but I tend to think that’s more because of the relationship we have built over the years and it’s not their standard tip to resort caddies. 

 

 

On 7/4/2023 at 8:19 AM, Hawkeye77 said:

Seems out of proportion to the caddie fee and who knows if they aren’t paid otherwise by the course?

 

Hawkeye's question was along the lines of what I was thinking as well.  If I am paying a hundred bones along with my greens fee I am assuming (dangerous) that the caddie is getting most of that for his services.  A gratuity on top of that I would suspect would be similarly along the lines percentage-wise of what I would give for outstanding service at a nice restaurant.  25-35%

 

If that hundred bones doesn't go to the caddie, A) I am having some heartburn with the course being a bit dishonest with their pricing and B) I need to know so I can take care of the guy/gal taking care of me.  I also don't mind if a small portion of the hundred bones goes to managing or the person managing the caddie program provided it is not just going back to the pro or something like that.  If it pays for bibs or coveralls for the caddies so much the better.

[Hawkeye77]

At a couple of courses when we were in Scotland a few years back, I asked the Caddiemaster what would be considered a fair but generous tip and both were happy to weigh in.  My caddie at Royal Dornoch apparently enjoyed our family and when he found out me and my oldest daughter had a time later in the week over some drinks after the round, told me to cancel it and invited us as his guests for that evening. I was out and about early that day and stopped in the clubhouse to check the time he’d already reserved and asked the pro what it cost him and paid both fees. It was a whopping 20 pounds each! Quite the bargain and we had a great time playing golf. We had a little rental house less than 100 yards from the clubhouse and still have the note he left late at night with the time and his number - he stayed at the bar longer than we did!

Edited July 6, 2023 by Hawkeye77

[Schulzmc]

2 hours ago, Hawkeye77 said:

At a couple of courses when we were in Scotland a few years back, I asked the Caddiemaster what would be considered a fair but generous tip and both were happy to weigh in.  My caddie at Royal Dornoch apparently enjoyed our family and when he found out me and my oldest daughter had a time later in the week over some drinks after the round, told me to cancel it and invited us as his guests for that evening. I was out and about early that day and stopped in the clubhouse to check the time he’d already reserved and asked the pro what it cost him and paid both fees. It was a whopping 20 pounds each! Quite the bargain and we had a great time playing golf. We had a little rental house less than 100 yards from the clubhouse and still have the note he left late at night with the time and his number - he stayed at the bar longer than we did!

 

I LOVE Royal Dornoch. I have been there twice and both times the caddies were fantastic. On one occasion, after two poorly struck five woods, when I asked for the club early in the back nine I was told, “I’m not handing it to you. If you want it you have to take it out of the bag yourself.” LOL

 

I’ve budgeted !00 pounds per round for caddies on all three of my trips to Scotland and they always seemed satisfied with that. The last trip was six years ago though so that may have changed…

[StudentGolfer4]

On 7/5/2023 at 3:12 PM, smashdn said:

 

 

Hawkeye's question was along the lines of what I was thinking as well.  If I am paying a hundred bones along with my greens fee I am assuming (dangerous) that the caddie is getting most of that for his services.  A gratuity on top of that I would suspect would be similarly along the lines percentage-wise of what I would give for outstanding service at a nice restaurant.  25-35%

 

If that hundred bones doesn't go to the caddie, A) I am having some heartburn with the course being a bit dishonest with their pricing and B) I need to know so I can take care of the guy/gal taking care of me.  I also don't mind if a small portion of the hundred bones goes to managing or the person managing the caddie program provided it is not just going back to the pro or something like that.  If it pays for bibs or coveralls for the caddies so much the better.

If it’s cash paid to the caddie it is almost always theirs to keep. When you pay a fee to the shop the caddie gets a percentage of that. Like you alluded to, the problem is it can vary. For example, pinehurst* charges a $75 caddie fee. $22 of that goes to the caddie. It rubs me the wrong way too. I would be happy to pay more knowing it all goes to the caddie. When the shop takes a cut it cost me more and the caddy ends up with less. 
 

I’ve had good luck just asking the caddie during the round. “So what’s the caddie fee go to and how much of that do you guys get?” Maybe they fib to get me to pay more but I tend to trust them. 
 

Overseas fees/tips are generally lower than what caddies make in the United States. 
 

(this was true at pinehurst last time I was there 2-3 years ago. It may have changed since then) 

[HoLeInOnE1]

Currently a caddie at one of the top 100 courses. A course that has held multiple tournaments. Most caddies won’t be upset about getting 80 per bag for gratuity but also not thrilled. Average per bag is around 110. Also to take into consideration is we only bring in 30% of the caddie fee if it is paid in the pro shop. 

[Mike_C]

53 minutes ago, HoLeInOnE1 said:

Also to take into consideration is we only bring in 30% of the caddie fee if it is paid in the pro shop. 

I actually think that is outrageous.  The club is just pimping out the caddies, is this the caddiemaster?

 

[klebs01]

On 6/28/2024 at 6:55 AM, HoLeInOnE1 said:

Currently a caddie at one of the top 100 courses. A course that has held multiple tournaments. Most caddies won’t be upset about getting 80 per bag for gratuity but also not thrilled. Average per bag is around 110. Also to take into consideration is we only bring in 30% of the caddie fee if it is paid in the pro shop. 

So caddy fee is ~$100 plus $110 for tip?  I’m WAY out on a caddy being worth that. 

[King_Slender]

12 minutes ago, klebs01 said:

So caddy fee is ~$100 plus $110 for tip?  I’m WAY out on a caddy being worth that. 

 

Yeah, I've soured, if you will, on the value of a caddie.  At MOST we book a forecaddie now and even that I find a but steep for what they do - typically run about $200-250 all in for caddie fee and tips.

 

Usually a good idea if we're going to a new resort course, but I'm more annoyed by them now than anything LOL

[st1800e]

40 minutes ago, klebs01 said:

So caddy fee is ~$100 plus $110 for tip?  I’m WAY out on a caddy being worth that. 

Previous post was not clear.   It’s $100-110 for a caddie including tip. 
 

I believe the ~$250 subsequently posted is for a forecaddie, cost split between 4 players.

[King_Slender]

36 minutes ago, st1800e said:

Previous post was not clear.   It’s $100-110 for a caddie including tip. 
 

I believe the ~$250 subsequently posted is for a forecaddie, cost split between 4 players.

 

Disgree - no matter the caddie fee from the course (typically $50-100) if you don't also give you're caddie a $100 per bag, they'll be a little pissed. 

[st1800e]

6 minutes ago, King_Slender said:

 

Disgree - no matter the caddie fee from the course (typically $50-100) if you don't also give you're caddie a $100 per bag, they'll be a little pissed. 

Where is that the norm? 

[Schulzmc]

I have played at some high end courses recently and it was $120 all in - fee and tip - paid in cash directly to the caddie.

[StudentGolfer4]

Resorts seem to be a bit different and more likely to have a caddie fee on top of what you give to the caddie. Most private clubs you just hand over cash at the end. 
 

Ask the caddie how much they get of the caddie fee you paid the shop. They will tell you. Last time I was at pinehurst the caddies for $22 bucks or something silly of the $75 that went to the shop. 
 

100 bare minimum if what the caddie should be taking home.  (Yes some exceptions apply.) Never be the guy that gives the minimum if the service was. adequate.  

Edited 23 hours ago by StudentGolfer4