This out-of-work caddie may be having the 'greatest season of unemployment'
This out-of-work caddie may be having the 'greatest season of unemployment'
Austin Gaugert isn't earning Ted Scott-type money as a caddie on the PGA Tour (yet!) but he may be having the 'greatest season of unemployment.'
Gaugert, who started caddying in 2016 and whose brother Alex is on the bag of Erik van Rooyen, enjoyed a victory on Sunday at the Corales Puntacana Championship during his three-week trial working for Garrick Higgo, and earned at least $72,000, or 10 percent of the $720,000 winner's check.
Not a bad haul for Gaugert, who had been on the bag for veteran Ryan Moore for the last year and a half. But Moore, 42, texted Gaugert that he might not play much this season and if he wanted to find a full-time bag, he had his blessing to go look for another job. Moore hasn't teed it up this season while Gaugert has picked up work for four different players already this season.
First, Gaugert caddied for Dylan Wu on Korn Ferry Tour and one week at the Tour's Farmers Insurance Open. While flying home from one week working for Sami Valimaki at the WM Phoenix Open, Gaugert got a call from veteran pro Patrick Rodgers, who was in need of help with his regular caddie sidelined with an injury. They had a successful run with Rodgers finishing T-3 at the Genesis Invitational, T-25 in Mexico and T-18 at the Cognizant Classic. Indeed, Rodgers played his way into the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill (T-22) via the Aon Next Five. But then Rodgers caddie was ready to return and with his pockets lined with cash, the out-of-work Gaugert joined his brother and dad for ski trips to Tahoe and Salt Lake City. That's where he was when his brother got a text from Higgo, a South African who had finished 150th on the FedEx Cup list the year before and was splitting time between the PGA and Korn Ferry tours, saying he was looking for a caddie. Alex suggested Austin, and Higgo replied, 'I'll take him.'
But when Higgo texted Austin and asked him to work a Korn Ferry Tour event in Savannah, Georgia, he was reluctant to take the job.
'I just made some money and I was ready to sit at home. I was having a great time skiing. The snow was awesome,' he recounted during an interview on Sirius/XM's PGA Tour Network.
But work is work, and in his first week of a three-week trial, Higgo finished T-3.
'Maybe he's really good,' thought Gaugert.
One week later, Higgo, 25, closed in 72 and was the beneficiary of Joel Dahmen's collapse. He lifted his second trophy on the PGA Tour at the Corales Puntacana Championship, an opposite-field event in the Dominican Republic.
'Probably one of the best feelings in the world,' Gaugert said of being on the bag for a champion.
This week, Gaugert is on Higgo's bag at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where Higgo is playing with Ryan Fox in the two-man team event. On the Sunday night flight to the Big Easy, Gaugert turned to Fox and said he was going to need him to play his heart out for him in his final week of his three-week trial with Higgo. Otherwise, it could be back to the unemployment line.
'I want to make sure I keep this job. It's paying pretty good,' Gaugert said.
Indeed, it has. Maybe not at the level of Scott, who banked seven figures lugging Scottie Scheffler's bag last season, or even Joe Greiner, the former caddie of Max Homa who filled in for Matt Minister on Justin Thomas's victory at the RBC Heritage and earned more than $400,000 — but a pretty good haul for an out-of-work caddie.
'I've been telling people I've had maybe one of the greatest seasons of unemployment,' Gaugert said.
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