How much money Phil Mickelson apparently owed his caddy after infamous 2017 split

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Given his PGA Tour career and the money he got from LIV Golf, Phil Mickelson shouldn’t be short of a dollar or two.

Mickelson is a six-time major winner and with 45 PGA Tour wins to his name, has more than left a legacy in the game.

Over that time period, he’s amassed over $96m in prize money on the PGA Tour alone, and with endorsements, sponsorships and earnings from other tours, he will be well into the hundreds of millions of dollars earned.

However, that doesn’t mean to say that Mickelson has always been forthcoming with paying his bills.

In fact, according to previous reports, Mickelson was actually left owing a former caddy a princely sum when they split in 2017.

How Phil Mickelson owed Jim ‘Bones’ MacKay nearly $1m

As we all know, player/caddy relationships can often be specific to the partnership and while the common figure of 10% of winnings is banded about, things can differ.

However, we don’t hear many stories of players actually not paying up.

But according to Alan Shipnuck’s book Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorised!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colourful Superstar (Today’s Golfer), that’s exactly what happened with Mickelson and Bones.

After splitting in 2017 – amicably it must be added – it’s claimed that Bones was actually owed around $900,000 by Mickelson in prize money. In an excerpt from the book, a source suggested Mickelson was way out of line.

“That’s a giant f—y– to a caddie,” someone close to Mackay claimed.

“When Phil wins the Masters, he gets the green jacket, the trophy, the big check, all the glory. He had to take the flags, too? Every other caddie who has ever won the Masters got to keep the eighteenth-hole flag. For Phil not to follow tradition was hugely disrespectful.”

In the end, Mickelson is said to have paid $400,000 towards the debt prior to their split, with little information given as to the whereabouts of the other half a million.

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Phil Mickelson’s career earnings

As noted above, Mickelson earned over $96m from the PGA Tour alone in winnings. That is enough to see anyone home and to a comfortable life.

But there is more as well.

Mickelson also pocketed around $12m in earnings from the European Tour over the years, while LIV Golf are said to have given Mickelson around $200m just to sign for them in the first place.

It goes without saying, then, that ‘Lefty’ has earned plenty of cash over the years and if the above rings true about owing his caddy money, then it’s simply not on.