The Tiger Woods – Steve Williams break-up surprisingly turned out to be the most talked about split since Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony went about their separate ways earlier this year.
And while the majority of us would rather see J-Lo wearing red on a Sunday – or any day for that matter – it’s Tiger Woods and the golf world that is still fizzling with this news. That’s especially after the results of the final major – the PGA Championship, held at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
Lately, J-Lo is looking good in red, while Tiger Woods is not
Keegan Bradley walked away with the Wanamaker Trophy and an exciting PGA Championship victory, but the story of the weekend remained elsewhere.
Steve Williams and Tiger Woods exchanged barbs and made headlines over the last few weeks. Then, toss in the success of Adam Scott (Stevie’s new course cohort), and the eyes of the golf world remain honed in.
A co-worker approached me the other day and asked how much dough professional caddies make. More specifically, he asked what their salary was. I chimed in and informed him that PGA caddies get a cut of the player’s winnings for that tournament, and not just a base salary. This guy – not a big golfer and like many folks, clearly a Tiger fan – had no idea this was the case.
That discussion got me to thinking, with Tiger struggling and Adam Scott seeing a spark with the addition of Williams, what exactly are the earnings of the two since they parted ways?
Steve Williams has fared well since his break-up from Tiger
In order to build an approximate calculation, I set out and did some research. TWHS is yet to be a big business operation, so I have nothing concrete, but there was a story a few years back via Forbes that discusses professional caddies and the money each makes. The article specifically points out the following regarding payment structure (again, this was a few years back):
“Caddies are paid on the basis of how well their player performs: a base salary of $1,000 a week plus 5% of the tournament purse, 7% of a top 10 and 10% for a victory…”
With this in mind, let’s use that formula to approximate the earnings of both Tiger Woods and Steve Williams since their “break-up”.
But before we proceed, I want to point out a few key things:
1) These numbers are NOT exact, but just an estimate based off of the aforementioned Forbes article. It takes into consideration the actual purse numbers from this year’s tournaments.
2) These estimated figures also do NOT take taxes into consideration. We all know that the government will get its piece of the pie when all is said and done.
3) These numbers also do NOT take into consideration any of Tiger’s endorsement figures or any fees. It’s simply the approximate money earned from the actual PGA tournaments – and ONLY PGA-related events.
4) I realize that nobody said there would be math at TWHS. But don’t fret, we’ll get through this with a minimal number of painful flashbacks to grade school.
5) Tiger Woods does not wear a negligee nor does he have a chest closely resembling Jennifer Aniston’s breasts. Bear with my shoddy Photoshop work.
And now, unlike Tiger’s career, let’s move onward and upward – and to the actual figures:
KP’s Unofficial Tiger Woods – Steve Williams Post-Break-Up PGA Cash Flow Tracker
* Tournament and Dollar information obtained via USA Today Sports and PGA.com
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (Aug 4-7, 2011)
Adam Scott (-17) – 1st Place – $1,400,000
Tiger Woods (+1) – Tied 37th Place – $58,500
Steve Williams – KP’s Best Guess: $1,000 + ($1,400,000 X 10%) = $141,000
PGA Championship (Aug 11-14, 2011)
Adam Scott (-4) – 7th Place – $259,000
Tiger Woods (+10) – Did not make cut
Steve Williams – KP’s Best Guess: $1,000 + ($259,000 X 7%) = $19,130
That leaves us with a post-break-up total of:
Steve Williams – $160,130
Tiger Woods – $58,500
Tiger’s former caddy has likely reeled in nearly three times more cash than Woods! That’s an eye-popping stat for a caddy’s earnings, when compared to the former top player in the world.
The figure may come as a surprise to many folks out there. With Tiger Woods continuing to struggle, who knows, these figures could become more lopsided in the future, too.
With plenty of events left on the schedule, The Wife Hates Sports will keep a close eye on these figures and update them as the season progresses.
REV–
Yeah, Adam Scott or J-Lo. Better stick with J-Lo…
At least we now know who to ask for a loan.