PGA Tour caddie Todd Montoya had a better week than his player Brian Stuard, who finished tied for third at the Safeway Open last week. For the finish, Stuard earned $322,163, but the caddie won a house valued at $505,000. Add in his standard caddie commission and salary and that's approximately $535,000. Not a bad week.
A few months ago, Montoya got an email from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, about a charity raffle.
"We caddies do a bunch of charity stuff for St. Jude so I knew it was a great charity," Montoya told ESPN. "Plus Brian and I had a pretty good year so I was feeling like I should share. I bought two $100 raffle tickets and did what everyone does ... forgot about it."
During the week of the Safeway Open, however, Montoya got a call from a number he didn't recognize. He let it go to voicemail. The message said he might be a winner.
Montoya was very skeptical but decided to dig a little. Speaking to a representative from St. Jude, Montoya had to answer some qualifying, identification questions. After answering the questions, he was told he won.
"I have some good news for you. You're raffle ticket won a $1,000 Visa gift card," the representative told Montoya. But there was more.
"... You also won the Grand Prize Dream Home," the charity official told him.
"Bulls---," the caddie told him in response.
"It took a bit of convincing that it was real." Montoya said. "But finally I knew it wasn't a scam."
The person who initially won the grand prize dream house didn't meet the eligibility requirements, so a second raffle ticket was pulled and Montoya won.
At one point Saturday the caddie sensed his player might be getting frustrated.
"Saturday we're on the course and at one point I'm just looking at Brian," Montoya said. "He goes, 'What?' I said, 'I won a house.' Brian couldn't help but laugh, and I think it actually helped us."
