The Little Known Plight of the PGA Tour Caddie

PGA Tour caddies are one of the most exploited groups of people in all of sports. It may seem like a glamorous life of making six figures for just carrying pro golfers clubs and giving them suggestions on which club to use, however things often aren't as they seem and when you take a closer look you notice that caddies are often very much taken advantage of. The way they are taken advantage of the most is through advertising, every week depending on who sponsors the tournament, caddies are forced to wear a bib with the company who is sponsoring the tournaments logo on it. They walk around with a big logo for the sponsoring company on it and they are not compensated at all. In 2015 a group of caddies sued the PGA tour for total damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars (about 750$ per tournament per caddie), in their lawsuit they said that the PGA Tour made 50 million on the caddies wearing these bills, and that the PGA Tour had reckless conduct and rigged the system so the caddies had an actual loss on these advertisements. Another problem that these caddies are suing for is that the PGA Tour has denied these caddies access to health care or pension plans. Being a caddy is very strenuous on the back and knees, and as caddies get older they often suffer from back and knee problems so its important that they are able to get health insurance and be protected in their retirement.