Caddying for Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy has its privileges, with their respective bagmen amassing gigantic fortunes.
Tiger Woods’ legendary caddie Steve Williams constructed one heck of a fortune (Picture: Getty)
Rory McIlroy has formally exorcised his Augusta demons by clinching back-to-back Masters titles, changing into simply the fourth man in historical past to take action. The Northern Irishman spent many of the weekend on the prime of the leaderboards earlier than in the end holding off Scottie Scheffler to say his second inexperienced jacket.
However whereas McIlroy took the headlines, the person standing over his shoulder, Harry Diamond, was additionally reaping the rewards of a historic afternoon. The function of the caddie has advanced from a humble bag-carrier to a high-stakes partnership, and nowhere is that this extra evident than within the financial institution accounts of the boys who information the world’s greatest. Diamond, a childhood buddy of McIlroy, has seen his personal internet value skyrocket after years alongside Rory. However even his spectacular earnings face stiff competitors from the gold normal of the career: Tiger Woods’ legendary former bagman, Steve Williams.
The New Zealander, who served as Woods’ right-hand man between 1999 and 2011, reached a degree of economic success beforehand extraordinary within the career. He was on the bag for 13 of Tiger’s 15 main championships.
Throughout that interval of unprecedented dominance, he amassed an absolute fortune. Studies estimate Williams’ internet value at roughly $20million (£15.7m). On the top of “Tiger-mania,” he was incomes sufficient by prize cash percentages and private endorsements to be ranked among the many highest-paid sportspeople in his house nation.
His wealth was a direct reflection of Woods’ win price, which frequently hovered round 30 per cent – a statistic that trendy professionals can solely dream of. Whereas Joe LaCava additionally earned tens of millions throughout Tiger’s later profession, together with the emotional 2019 Masters win, it’s the Williams period that continues to be the benchmark for caddie earnings.
Since taking the bag for McIlroy full-time in 2017, Harry Diamond has usually confronted scrutiny from critics – notably in the course of the latter years of McIlroy’s decade-long await a fifth main – however the 2025 Masters victory silenced the doubters and the 2026 triumph solely strengthened his worth.
The economics of the sport have shifted considerably because the early 2000s, with prize purses reaching astronomical ranges. Following McIlroy’s win at Augusta this weekend, the place he secured a file $4.5m (£3.36m) winner’s share, Diamond is anticipated to have pocketed a staggering $450,000 (£336,000) from that occasion alone.
With caddies sometimes receiving 10 per cent of a win and round seven per cent for a top-10 end, Diamond’s constant tenure with a top-ranked participant has made him a really rich man. Estimates counsel his profession earnings with McIlroy have now surpassed €10m (£8.5m).
Diamond was by McIlroy’s facet as he clinched his second successive Masters title on the weekend (Picture: Getty)
The comparability between Diamond and Williams highlights how the function has modified. Williams operated in an period the place he was virtually as a lot of a celeb because the gamers, leveraging Tiger’s fame into his personal private model.
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In distinction, Diamond represents the quiet skilled – the trusted confidant who gives a degree of consolation that McIlroy claims “in all probability nobody else on the planet might.”
Whereas Williams holds the file for the very best internet value, Diamond is quickly closing the hole, and if McIlroy’s major-winning kind continues, we could quickly have a brand new file holder on our fingers.
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