Prize money flashes across screens the moment a tournament ends. What doesn’t show up anywhere is the bill that has been outstanding for days before the tournament. Ben Griffin has done the math out loud, and from $2.5 million he has made so far in 2026, roughly $750,000 was spent on unavoidable expenses.

“There are definitely some base expenses you have to cover when you get to a tournament. My average spend is probably on the higher side because I had a really good season, and I pay my caddie, coach, and trainer based on performance as well as base salaries. You could argue my average spend per week this year was probably around $50,000,” he shared recently.

“Travel costs, hotel stays, Airbnbs, or rental homes—those expenses are all on the players. Everyone also has a caddie. The caddie receives a base salary plus a percentage based on performance, so that can vary significantly from tournament to tournament depending on how you play. On top of that, coaches, trainers, and physios often travel to events too. All of those costs come out of a PGA Tour player’s pocket.”

What makes that $50,000 figure particularly striking is where Ben Griffin started. Back in 2023, he posted a TikTok breaking down his weekly expenses and described himself as “definitely at the lower end” of spending on Tour. At that point, his minimum per week was around $6,000, flying commercial, with no personal physio, no private chef, and no family travel expenses. Multiply that across 31 starts that season, and you get roughly $186,000 in annual expenses.

Caddies earn a weekly base salary between $2,000 and $5,000, plus 7 to 8 percent of winnings, rising to 10 percent on a win. Ben Griffin’s caddie, Alex Ritthamel, operates on that same performance-based model. On top of that, coaches on the PGA Tour can cost anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 annually, while a traveling physio typically runs $3,000 to $5,000 per tournament week.

So far, in 2026, Griffin has competed in 15 events, and this is how the cost breakdown looks:

Estimated total caddie cost in 2026 alone: roughly $257,673, from his $2,564,660 earnings. And, the season isn’t done yet.

Across 30 events in 2025, that adds up to around $1.5 million in expenses, a significant chunk even against his total earnings of $16.7 million that season, which includes PGA Tour bonuses and major payouts. Now, this is the kind of growth we are sure Griffin doesn’t mind.

Notably, Ben Griffin isn’t the only one who has explained how this works. Back in 2023, Bryson DeChambeau laid it out on the Full Send podcast.

“We are independent contractors who pay for all of our expenses. Every hotel, we have to pay for on our own, as well as all our food. You do everything yourself, and you have a family to feed. And you’re missing cuts. When you’re missing cuts, you make nothing.”

In 2024, the 165th-ranked player on the PGA Tour money list, Kevin Chappell, earned $529,738 for the year. After a 35 percent federal tax rate and standard expenses of travel, coaching, and caddying, he likely took home less than half of that. Further down the list, the 200th-ranked player earned $228,568, and the 250th just $73,350. At that level, after expenses, the numbers stop working entirely. As DeChambeau put it:

“The guys that are 125 and in, we’re having a great life; no issues. But I feel so bad for the guys who are 165 and out.”

The 30-year-old Ben Griffin knows that reality from personal experience, not just observation. The financial pressure Griffin faced wasn’t just professional; it was deeply personal.

From $17,000 in debt to the Ryder Cup: Ben Griffin’s unlikely road back

After turning pro in 2018, poor results left Griffin $17,000 in credit card debt. The system, as he described it, made betting on himself feel impossible. So in 2021, he walked away entirely, trading tournament weeks for a loan officer desk job.

The turning point came from an unexpected corner. Lord Abbett CEO Doug Sieg spotted Griffin’s potential and offered to cover all his expenses, asking nothing except that Griffin focus purely on winning. Griffin’s condition was simple: he needed to stop thinking about money and start thinking about golf again.

Well, it worked. Ben Griffin returned in 2021 with a clear head, climbed through the rankings, and by 2025 was winning on the PGA Tour. Three victories that season, including the Zurich Classic and Charles Schwab Challenge, earned him roughly $4.18 million and a spot on the Ryder Cup team.

In April 2026, Ben Griffin played his first Masters at Augusta, a tournament he had once walked away from, ever dreaming about. He didn’t win, but for Griffin, just being inside the ropes was the validation years of struggle had been building toward.