Scottie Scheffler has just become the highest-earning player in the history of the PGA TOUR. He has surpassed Tiger Woods, has amassed 130,390,661 dollars and has just pocketed ten million for his victory at the Tour Championship. At this point, it is obvious that the American has no financial worries. However, a conversation revealed now by his caddie, Ted Scott, helps to understand that money has never been the true driving force of his career. At least, it wasn’t during those turbulent moments when LIV Golf appeared.
The story goes back to late 2021 and early 2022. Scott had just started working with Scheffler and was still getting to know his new boss. They had been together for less than six months when the arrival of LIV Golf began to shake the foundations of professional golf.
The caddie suspected that the new circuit could put a staggering sum on the table to try to sign Scheffler, who had just reached world No. 1. He told him directly. The player’s answer made it clear who he was working with.
The first clue was a completely white bag
Ted Scott began working as Scheffler’s caddie in November 2021. The Texan golfer was then 19th in the world rankings and had not yet recorded his first win on the PGA TOUR.
There was, moreover, something that was striking. Scheffler used a white golf bag, practically free of commercial marks or logos.
Scott recounted the anecdote during a recent appearance on The Gravy & The Sleaze, a SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio show. He barely knew Scheffler and decided to ask him why he did not have more sponsors. The answer was as simple as it was revealing: he wanted to use the clubs and equipment he himself chose, without being conditioned by any contract.
First sign. Scheffler had not yet won on the PGA Tour, but he was already willing to forgo certain income if it could interfere with what he considered best for his golf. Sport ahead of money.
The results came immediately afterwards. He won his first title in February 2022 (WM Phoenix Open) and, barely six weeks later, won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play to become world No. 1 for the first time. It was on 27 March 2022, less than three months before the first LIV Golf tournament was staged.
“They could offer me a billion”
Scheffler’s new sporting dimension made his caddie think he would inevitably become one of LIV’s major targets.
Scott has not revealed the existence of a real, concrete offer. What he recalled was a conversation between the two of them in the midst of the Saudi-backed circuit’s offensive to sign the sport’s main stars.
The caddie worked out aloud that they could offer around 250 million dollars to leave the PGA TOUR. Scheffler did not need time to reflect:
“I don’t care what they offer me. They could offer me a billion dollars. I’m going to play where the best are because my only goal is to beat them.”
The answer had less to do with a political or business stance on LIV Golf than with his way of understanding competition. At that time, Scheffler considered the PGA TOUR to be the place where he could regularly face the best players, and that mattered more to him than any hypothetical cheque.
The first LIV event was played in June 2022 at the Centurion Club in London. By then, Scheffler had already won four times during the season, including the Masters, and had become the dominant figure in American golf.
Money as a non-distraction
The anecdote gains even more weight after what happened at East Lake.
Scheffler won the Tour Championship, received ten million dollars and raised his official earnings to 130,390,661. With that figure he has overtaken by 9,391,495 dollars the 120,999,166 accumulated by Tiger Woods during his PGA TOUR career.
Ted Scott maintains that the cheque does not alter his player’s way of competing at all. The caddie believes that part of Scheffler’s extraordinary performance comes precisely from his ability not to be distracted by money.
To illustrate it, he used a very graphic example: Scheffler would want to win an informal game of volleyball in a swimming pool with the same intensity as the outcome of the FedEx Cup. The size of the prize may change, but the need to defeat whoever is in front of him does not.
That does not mean Scheffler despises money or does not recognise its importance. His attitude is more about separating it from competition.
A partnership that began before the first victory
Ted Scott was already one of the most prestigious caddies in the world before receiving Scheffler’s call. He had worked for years with Bubba Watson and was by his side for his two Masters wins, in 2012 and 2014.
The decision to join a player who had not yet won on the PGA TOUR might have seemed a gamble. The result has exceeded all expectations.
Scott has carried the bag in Scheffler’s 22 PGA TOUR victories, since that debut in Phoenix in February 2022. Four of those triumphs have come in Majors. The pair have also won the FedEx Cup twice and have turned their partnership into one of the most successful in the recent history of the tour.
Scheffler closed the 2026 season with 30,937,525 dollars in official earnings, a new annual record for the PGA TOUR. Financial agreements between players and caddies are private, so it is not possible to determine exactly how much Scott has earned, although it is evident that he has also obtained substantial earnings.
Scott’s conclusion is that Scheffler does not play to get richer, but because he wants to beat everyone
