Meet Dave Markle: Nick Taylor’s Caddie

 

Nick Taylor is a Canadian professional on the PGA Tour. Taylor is a 13-year veteran, earning about $12.4 million over the course of his career. He has 2 victories, 2 runner-ups and17 top ten finishes. Most of his success is due to his talent and skill as a golfer but we like to attribute some of that success to the person that spends the most time with him out there, his caddie. Let’s get to know Nick Taylor’s caddie.

Who is Nick Taylor’s caddie?

Nick Taylor’s caddie is David Markle, more commonly referred to as Dave Markle. Dave Markle, also Canadian, like many of the caddies on tour, has pretty deep roots in golf and is, himself, a very good golfer. In fact, he’s good enough to have turned pro back in 2008, where he played 15 events and made 6 cuts. One very important display of his playing ability came back in 2008, when Markle Monday Qualified for the RBC Canadian Open with a qualifying score of 66. Markle was also a cast member of the Golf Channel’s Big Break Myrtle Beach. Markle played golf at the collegiate level at Kent State University, similar to Corey Connors and Taylor Pendrith.

When did Dave Markle start caddying for Nick Taylor?

Though we’re still trying to pin down the exact dates for when the Markle Officially started caddying for Taylor, we do know that the partnership started back in the fall of 2022, when Taylor switched from his former caddie.

How much does Nick Taylor’s caddie, Dave Markle, make?

Since this partnership is very new, we will use information from the 2023 season to estimate Markle’s earnings in this partnership. The important thing to note, though, is that caddies' earnings can be vastly different from one year to the next because it’s dependent on the player’s performance. With that in mind, we’ll get an idea of how much he’s made in one season by looking at his earnings during the 2022-2023 season on the PGA tour. The payment model most caddies have are as follows: The caddie makes 5% of earnings if the player places outside the top 10, 7% if the player finishes within the top 10, and 10% if the player finishes in 1st place. Using this model, we can estimate that Dave Markle has made $2433,525 in 2023 on the PGA Tour.

Here's the breakdown of how much money Dave Markle made in 2023 caddying for Nick Taylor

Tournament	Finish	Nick Taylor's Earnings	% of Earnings	Dave Markle's Earnings
Fortinet Championship	6	$270,000	7%	$18,900
Sanderson Farms Championship	19	$97,091	5%	$4,855
Butterfield Bermuda Championship	23	$56,550	5%	$2,828
World Wide Technology Championship	53	$19,489	5%	$974
Sony Open in Hawaii	7	$249,245	7%	$17,447
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am	20	$88,950	5%	$4,448
WM Phoenix Open	2	$2,180,000	7%	$152,600
The Genesis Invitational	33	$104,429	5%	$5,221
Valspar Championship	10	$181,575	7%	$12,710
World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play	31	$113,761	5%	$5,688
Valero Texas Open	15	$135,725	5%	$6,786
RBC Heritage	41	$71,000	5%	$3,550
Zurich Classic of New Orleans	2	$507,400	7%	$35,518
RBC Canadian Open	2	$1,620,000	10%	$162,000
Grand Total	20	$4,075,214	6%	$433,525