Isaiah Salinda is one of the PGA Tour’s rising stars, with some impressive performances since earning his card via the Korn Ferry Tour at the end of the 2024 season, including T3 at the Mexico Open in just his fourth start as a member.
Californian Salinda attended Stanford University, where one of his teammates was Bradley Knox, who would later caddie for him.
During Knox’s senior year at Stanford, he achieved a scoring average of 72.29 from his eight tournaments and was named to the Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team.
While Salinda’s and Knox’s paths crossed during their Stanford years, though, they knew each other long before then. Back in 2018, when Salinda reached the semi-finals of the US Amateur at Pebble Beach, Knox, who caddied for him that week, explained just how far back the two’s acquaintance goes.
He said: “I’ve known Isaiah for 10 years. We played junior golf together, and then being on the Stanford golf team together we spend 20 hours or more every week traveling together, playing tournaments together, and playing practice rounds for six hours.”
It's not just Knox who Salinda has turned to as he has made his way in the game, though. For example, for his maiden Major appearance at the 2022 US Open, he was alongside Jeffrey Lai.
More recently, he has also been seen with Brian Dilley, who has previously worked with the likes of Aaron Wise and Akshay Bhatia.
While Salinda has worked with more than one caddie during his professional career so far, the outcome has been similar, with his career seemingly heading in one direction: up. That was apparent during the first round of the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where, alongside Kevin Velo, the pair carded a 58 to place themselves firmly in contention for victory.
