Caddying for the world’s top golfers can be a lucrative profession, but nobody is raking it in quite like Scottie Scheffler’s No. 2, Ted Scott. That’s despite the fact Scheffler hasn’t quite managed to match his 2024 earnings this year, with his focus now fully on next week’s Ryder Cup.
And it speaks to Scheffler’s quality that, despite the pay decrease, 2025 has still been a banner year for the reigning world No. 1. The Texan has won six tournaments so far this season, one fewer than his 2024 total, but has doubled his major count after clinching both The Open and the PGA Championship. All that success equates to a considerable cut for caddie Scott, who has been working alongside Scheffler as his bag man for nearly four years. Ted had a 15-year partnership with Bubba Watson before the duo went their separate ways.
And it’s been a match made in heaven to date, with Scheffler’s greatest successes coming some time after he and Scott started collaborating on the course. That much is evidenced by Scheffler’s PGA Tour earnings of a little more than £20million so far this year.
The going rate for a caddie is 10% of any win purse, 7% for a top-10 finish and 5% for anything else. That being said, Scheffler may be even more generous, though he failed to uncover any of the specifics while addressing the matter last year.
Speaking on the Pardon My Take podcast last year, Scheffler explained: “We have a girl that helps us pay bills basically because I’m a child and I can’t keep track of all that stuff!
“She quickly took over that job and texts me at the end of each week, saying, ‘Hey, this is how much we’re paying Ted.’ I’m like, ‘That’s great.'”
Scheffler enjoyed a particularly prolific month between early May and early June, where he won both the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and Memorial Tournament in addition to the PGA Championship. He later added his first Open title and the BMW Championship, while he also sealed the Procore Championship crown less than a fortnight before the Ryder Cup begins.
Those six wins alone account for more than £12m, more than half of Scheffler’s total winnings for the year to date. The 29-year-old is rocketing towards contention at the top end of the PGA’s all-time earnings list, having won just north of £73m thus far in his career.
The relationship between golfer and caddie can often be an intense one, and some stars prefer to keep things business-like when navigating the workplace. However, Scheffler made his deep appreciation of Scott, as a person as well as his employee, clear when his bag carrier had to take some time off this summer to deal with a family emergency.
“It’s extremely important to have Ted back on the bag,” Scheffler said in August ahead of this year’s Tour Championship. “I don’t think it’s any secret that my career trajectory changed quite a bit when he came on the bag. I went from a guy that hadn’t won on Tour to a guy that started winning at a pretty good pace immediately upon him entering the picture.
“I think what Ted has meant to me on the golf course, I think the results really do speak for themselves. He’s a great asset for me on the golf course. He’s a great friend, and I feel like we’re a really good team.”
