Max Homa has been looking for answers all year. He changed his driver. He rebuilt his swing.
And now he’s on his third caddie in less than a year.
Homa tees up this week at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth with Peter Pappageorge on his bag. A friend whom he called in a pinch after Homa parted with Lance Bennett after a missed cut at the PGA Championship, according to Golfweek.
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The answer may not be in the bag or who is carrying it, but Homa looks like a player desperate for something new.
Once ranked as high as No.5 in the world, Homa enters this week at No.123, No.74 in the FedEx Cup standings, with one top 10 in 13 starts. He left Titleist for Cobra. He left his swing coach, Mark Blackburn for John Scott Rattan, then went back to Blackburn.
The caddie changes are the most personal part of it.
The longest partnership he had was the one that hurt the most to lose. He and Joe Greiner grew up on the same golf course outside of Los Angeles. Homa was 6 when they met at Vista Valencia. They turned pro together in 2013, split, and then came back together in 2019. Together they won all six of Homa’s PGA Tour titles. They made two Presidents Cup teams and a Ryder Cup appearance together.
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Last spring, Greiner was the one who ended it. Homa was upset.
“It was not my choice, so it sucked,” Homa said at the time. “But we always had a deal that we’re friends first and friendships mattered more than the work thing.”
Homa turned to Bill Harke. Then he turned to Bennett, who carried Tiger Woods’ bag on a limited basis in 2024. Now Pappageorge.
How much do PGA Tour caddies earn?
There is no formal contract between a player and his caddie, no guaranteed salary, no union to set minimums.
Caddies have a trade association, the Association of Professional Tour Caddies, but they work as independent contractors who register with the Tour. They have no collective bargaining power. Every deal is private, arranged between the caddie and the player or his representative.
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Most caddies earn roughly $1,500 to 3,000 a week, plus 5% of whatever their player makes for a made cut, 7% for a top 10 and 10% for a win. A caddie like Ted Scott, who carries Scottie Scheffler’s bag, is estimated to have cleared more than $5 million in 2024 based on his golfer’s winnings.
How long can a caddie-golfer relationship last?
The relationships are everything to a successful golfer. Phil Mickleson and Jim “Bones” Mackay went 25 years and more than 600 tournaments together. They won five majors and played in 11 Ryder Cups. Mike “Fluff” Cowan has caddied for Jim Furyk since 1999.
After leaving Homa, Greiner helped Justin Thomas end a three-year winless streak.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Max Homa keeps changing caddies, but finds no answers
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