Chance to become St Andrews Links golf caddie for 2026 season
A drive has been launched by St Andrews Links in a bid to recruit new caddies for the 2026 golfing season.
Successful applicants will get to work across all eight St Andrews courses between April 1 and October 31 each year, with previous caddie experience considered an advantage, although not essential.
St Andrews Links caddie Iain Barbour told the BBC’s Radio Scotland Breakfast: “If you’re looking to work anything between five and seven days you’ll be based down at the Old Course, you’ll be working on the Old Course or on some of the side courses – the New, the Jubilee, the Eden.
"So it’s really flexible.
"The decent rate is £80 per round. The recommended gratuity on top of that is £35, but that is only if you have enhanced the experience and provided an excellent service for the golfer.
"That is really at the golfer’s discretion. I would say on a number of occasions the golfer will pay in excess of that. It’s really depending on the caddie’s performance.
"The harder you work, the more knowledge you’ve got, it depends how well you do the job but you can’t earn in excess of that per round.”
When asked if he’d heard unconfirmed reports that “wealthy Americans” had been known to pay around 10 times these amounts to St Andrews caddies they have liked, Barbour added: “Not that I’ve come across. I’ve heard there’s some big days but personally not quite that much.
"Who knows what tomorrow brings? There are opportunities out there.
"People often think that caddying is only about carrying a set of golf clubs round the course and there’s certainly a lot more than that.
"We are giving lines off tees, we’re giving yardages, we’re reading greens, we’re cleaning clubs, replacing divots, replacing pitch marks.
"But communication skills are absolutely essential.
"It’s knowing when you want to speak to the client and when not to.
"Some like a laugh and a joke, some take it ultra seriously.
"This is a bucket list dream for most Americans coming over here so you’ve only got to enhance their whole experience."
See https://standrews.com/page/careers__caddying for more information and to apply.