"Tosti's Caddie Quit on Him Today"

The DM from a burner account simply said, “Tosti’s caddie quit on him today.”

It was early Thursday afternoon at the Biltmore Championship. Soon, video of the caddie setting down Alejandro Tosti’s bag, removing his bib and walking off the course mid-round would make its way around social media.

After trading a few messages to find out what happened, I asked the person answering from the anonymous account if the details he was sharing were firsthand or if he had heard them from other caddies.

“Oh, I would say it was pretty firsthand,” came the reply.

Turns out the person I had been messaging with was Cliff Ellis, Tosti’s caddie. The guy who had just walked off the course.

That moment, according to Ellis, was the culmination of a series of incidents during the pair’s time together this season.

Ellis agreed to start working for Tosti in May at the CJ Cup in suburban Dallas, after the two were connected through a mutual friend who had hosted Tosti at his home in the area during Korn Ferry Tour events.

The arrangement was unusual. Ellis agreed to work for Tosti, an Argentinian who turned 30 in May, without receiving a weekly salary, instead earning 6 percent of whatever prize money Tosti made. I spoke with multiple PGA Tour caddies who confirmed that such a pay arrangement for a full-time caddie is virtually unheard of.

Although weekly salaries and percentage bonuses vary from player to player, a typical starting point for a PGA Tour caddie is around $2,000 per week, plus 5% of earnings for a made cut, 7% for a top-10 finish and 10% for a win.

Tosti said the pay arrangement was Ellis’s suggestion and that he agreed to it. Tosti also provided a screenshot of a text exchange after their first week together in which he asked Ellis if he wanted to continue working for him.

“Absolutely, I have the time and the money to follow you,” Ellis responded.

In total, the pair worked together for eight events, plus the 36-hole final stage of U.S. Open qualifying, at which Tosti advanced to Shinnecock Hills. They made just one cut, in mid-June at the Canadian Open, where Tosti finished T-40 and made $40,670. The event finished on June 14th.

Ellis said he didn't receive his share of that paycheck until over a month after the conclusion of the Canadian Open. Tosti disputed the claim he had intentionally delayed payment, saying he was waiting for Ellis to send him a W-9.

During an almost two-hour interview that was attended by his attorney, Tosti provided a screenshot of an email dated July 7 that appeared to show an invoice from Ellis, along with a transaction screenshot dated July 20 confirming payment. Tosti said he had also been outside the country playing in Punta Cana, an event that ended on July 19, contributing to the delay. Ellis disputed that the email Tosti sent to me was the first time the pair had discussed the payment.

The payment included an additional $600, representing 6 percent of the $10,000 stipend given to players who qualify for the U.S. Open. Tosti was quick to point out that the stipend was “not prize money, but I did not hesitate to pay.”

“He never mentioned that he wanted to get paid extra for it,” Tosti said.

Tosti did pay for Ellis’s flight from Canada to the U.S. Open along with paying for airbnb the two of them shared. However, even that didn’t come without a dispute. A friend of Ellis’s stayed in the house a few nights and according to Tosti didn’t pay for his portion of those nights.

The money issue, however, only begins to tell the story of the friction between a player and his caddie. According to Ellis, Tosti lost his temper almost weekly, and at times that anger was directed at him.

At the Charles Schwab, just their second event together, Ellis said Tosti had instructed him, “Don't do anything unless I tell you.” But on the 14th hole, Ellis said Tosti became angry when he didn't immediately pull the flag, dropping the F-word multiple times to express his frustration.

One of the worst incidents, according to Ellis, came at the Rocket Classic in Detroit. Tosti opened with an 82, including a back-nine 45. Ellis said Tosti “went crazy” multiple times during the round, slamming clubs into the ground and hitting penalty-area stakes in anger.

At one point, according to Ellis, Tosti threw a club toward the bag that ended up near the caddie. During our conversation, Ellis was careful to make clear he did not believe Tosti threw the club at him.

After the round, Ellis said a PGA Tour official pulled Tosti aside and warned him that he could get suspended if he had another incident. Tosti confirmed tour officials had spoken with him. He also pointed out he has been working with a psychologist for a long time and has been trying to remain calm on the course.

There was a history behind that warning.

Tosti was suspended in 2023 following multiple incidents during his season on the Korn Ferry Tour, which I reported on at the time. The Tour publicly described the situation as a “disciplinary matter” and, per its policy, did not disclose the details of the punishment.

Tosti later stepped away from the game for a five month period in 2025, a break that was described as being related to his mental health. He returned for the final stage of Q-school where he finished T2 to retain his playing privileges for the 2026 season.

The week before the Biltmore Championship, Tosti asked Ellis to come to Gainesville, Florida, where Tosti played collegiately and now lives, so the two could practice together.

Ellis drove from his home in Texas and arrived on a Friday. But according to Ellis, they practiced just once before leaving for Asheville, N.C., on Monday morning. He stayed with Tosti, and the two attended a University of Florida football game. A recently licensed pilot, Tosti also took Ellis flying a couple of times that weekend in the single engine amphibious plane he rents.

On Tuesday the pair met with Tosti’s psychologist together for nearly an hour and half. It was the first time Ellis had sat in on a session.

According to Ellis, the problems started again on Thursday morning before the first round of the Biltmore. Ellis said he placed Tosti's bag on the range in the same area he always did. When Tosti arrived, Ellis said he complained the bag was too far away.

“Are you going to make me walk to the locker room for my clubs?” Ellis recalled Tosti saying, referring to the fact the bag was too far away.

According to Ellis, when he pointed out that he had placed the bag where the other caddies had theirs, Tosti responded, “I’m not other players,” before grabbing the bag and moving it much closer to the hitting area.

During rounds, Tosti rarely talks to anyone, including his caddie, and last Thursday was no different.

Tosti stood even par when he reached the par-5 17th, his eighth hole of the day. After missing the green with his third shot, a short pitch from left of the green left him 14 feet for par. While awaiting his turn to putt, Tosti walked over to the grandstand, sat down and leaned against the structure. Ellis walked over and said something about letting the previous shots go, something he said the pair had been working on with a mental-performance professional Tosti was seeing.

Tosti holed the par putt, and according to Ellis, Tosti confronted him on the next tee.

“Don't do that again, or I'll get really angry,” Ellis recalled Tosti saying about the exchange near the grandstand.

Tosti remembers it differently. He said after making the putt, Ellis gave him a fist bump and was “fired up.”

Tosti explained he has been working hard on not getting too emotional after big moments, something he believes contributed to his angrier episodes in the past. He said the conversation centered around that.

The discussion continued for another 30 seconds or so before Tosti hit a near-perfect drive on the par-4 18th. He followed it with a wedge to eight feet. Ellis went to replace the divot while Tosti stayed back to clean his club. When Ellis returned to the bag, he said Tosti asked why he had packed an umbrella. It wasn't something the two had previously discussed that day. Ellis explained there was a slight chance of rain.

Tosti told me he takes pride in “having the lightest bag on tour, I don’t even take a single extra tee” and that the umbrella added three pounds.

According to Ellis, Tosti responded by repeatedly calling him a “dumbass.”

Tosti acknowledged the two discussed the umbrella and confirmed the conversation was contentious, but he disputed Ellis's account of the language he used. “It's not a word I ever use,” Tosti said.

According to Ellis, it wasn’t the first time the two had disagreed over whether to carry an umbrella.

At the Canadian Open, Ellis said Tosti told him there was no need to put one in the bag. But on the first hole, it began to rain and Tosti asked Ellis to run back to the locker room to get it. Ellis retrieved the umbrella and caught back up with the group near the first green.

For Ellis, what transpired in the 18th fairway was the last straw. After threatening to drop the bag a few times as they made their way to the green and getting very little response. He told Tosti he was done.

After packing up his stuff, Ellis headed for the parking lot and according to Tosti, Ellis yelled “good luck” in frustration from a distance as Tosti made his way to the first tee with a fan carrying his bag.

When Tosti finished his round and went back to the Airbnb the duo was sharing, Ellis was gone. However in a video Tosti shared with me Tosti found cigarette ashes in his bed and the butt of the cigarette in a bottle of water Tosti had in the room seemingly from Ellis.

Over the next 24 hours, I spoke and exchanged multiple messages with Ellis about what had happened. On Friday afternoon, I reached out to the tour for comment and mentioned I was working on a story. Not long after, Andy Levinson, the tour’s senior vice president of tournament administration, called Ellis.

According to Ellis Levinson asked about the details of why he left but “quickly moved on.” Ellis said much of the conversation centered on his decision to speak publicly about the incident. According to Ellis, Levinson told him multiple times he shouldn’t have gone to the media and that leaving in the middle of the round was unprofessional.

Ellis described Levinson’s tone during the call this way: “He talked to me like he was my dad, and no one talks to me like that except my dad.”

Soon after that call ended, my phone rang. It was Ellis. He asked me not to publish the story. I explained to him that I was in a tough position, as our conversations had been on the record. I told him I would think about it and let him know the next day.

The next day, before I had made my decision about running the story, Ellis called again. He told me he had spent more time thinking about his conversation with Levinson and was disappointed with how it had gone. He no longer wanted to stop the story. He wanted me to publish it.

Tosti and Ellis both say they have faced no disciplinary action from the tour as a result of the Thursday incident.

Ellis returned home to Texas over the weekend. Had he stayed on the bag, he wouldn’t have gotten paid anyway. Because Tosti missed the cut.