The CME Group Tour Championship offered a suitably grand finale to the LPGA Tour campaign, with the top 60 in the season-long Race to CME Globe rankings competing at Tiburon Golf Club in Florida.
In the end, Jeeno Thitikul won the event for the second season in a row, meaning she was again crowned Race to CME Globe champion. However, as well as writing her name into the history books, the Thai player is also significantly wealthier following her four-shot victory.
The event offered a prize money payout of $11m, with Thitikul banking the joint largest one-off payout ever awarded in the women’s game, $4m, the same sum she won at the event a year ago.
Helping her to her latest victory at the tournament was caddie Banpot Bunpisansaree. So, how much did he earn at the event?
It is thought that, as well as base pay between $1,000 and $2,500 per tournament, the winning caddies of LPGA Tour events bank 10% of the overall prize money.
That means that Bunpisansaree likely earned a performance-related payout of $400,000 courtesy of Thitikul's victory.
It’s not just the winning caddie who received a substantial payday thanks to the elevated prize money at the tournament.
Players finishing in the top 10 of events are generally expected to award their caddies 7% of their prize money, with 5% going to the other 50 players in the CME Group Tour Championship field.
The runner-up at the tournament was Pajaree Anannarukarn, who earned $1m, meaning her caddie Jesus Mozo should be in line for a payday of around $70,000.
As a no-cut event, every player in the field for the CME Group Tour Championship receives a payment, with even the player finishing bottom of the leaderboard, Chanettee Wannasaen, banking $55,000 in prize money. As a result, her caddie can expect a payday of around $2,750.
