Mich Native Tom Gillis is Back on Tour
By Tom Lang
Tom Gillis, the Lake Orion, Michigan native who retired in 2024 after playing pro tours regularly for 34 years in Europe, on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour – would be thrilled to get back on the PGA Tour.
In a new role.
As a caddy.
“I’d definitely entertain working the PGA Tour, and make that a new career,” Gillis told me on a recent phone call from his home in Jupiter, Fla. “Like Jerry Kelly told me a couple weeks ago, ‘you’d be really good for a young guy on PGA Tour. You could really help him.’ And I feel like I could too.”
In the meantime, Gillis has looped a half dozen times in the last several months.
Gillis said many caddies now can easily earn $500,000 a year on the PGA Tour.
“That’s a pretty good retirement gig in my eyes, especially with two kids in college next year,” Gillis said with a chuckle.
“It’s such a different game now…. It’s changed so much with the power. It’s mesmerizing to me to watch. Even after six years on the Champions Tour, it’s just so different now. These young guys fly it 300 yards through the air like it’s nothing. It’s pretty cool to watch to be honest.
“They let it rip, they hit it high. Some of these guys have excellent short games – and that was the best part of my game for all those years. At times now, I see stuff out there and say, ‘I can help that guy’ … just with all that experience would be fun to help others. It’s fun getting to use all of that 34 years playing all over the world, being around really good players.”
In the short term, Gillis has been working a little, and has plans to caddy about a dozen times total this season for Champions Tour ‘rookie’ George McNeill – who recently turned 50 years old and came in T2 with Stewart Cink behind winner Zach Johnson at the James Hardie Invitational in Florida in March.
“He gave me a check for $15,000 and I said that was the easiest money I ever made, without taking a shot,” Gillis said of looping for McNeill. “I thought this is pretty fun.
“I get to see all my colleagues,” he added about what he likes about the new gig. “That’s what you miss, being around the guys. You don’t really miss the day to day working on the game. But I do miss the relationships and the locker room. I’m still a member of the Tour, so I can go in and eat in player dining and all that, so when I walk in, they’re all joking ‘hey, no caddies allowed.’ I get a lot of that. They give me the business and it’s fun.”
Gillis played worldwide, including five years on the European Tour. His closet chances at victory on the PGA Tour in America was the 2015 John Deere Classic when he tied for first with Jordan Speith, who went on to win the playoff between the two. Gillis also tied Tiger Woods for second place behind winner Rory McIlroy in the 2012 Honda Classic. Gillis made 103 cuts out of 188 starts on the PGA Tour, with 10 Top 10s.
In December of 2025, Gillis was asked on a whim by Tom Hoge to caddy in the PGA Tour Grant Thornton Invitational. Their team placed T7. Then came the call from long-time Tour friend McNeill, plus a one-time loop for Wyandotte, Michigan native Justin Hicks, now a teaching pro in Florida. Hicks played for a time on the PGA Tour out of the University of Michigan, and is having solid senior tournament showings as a club pro these days. In April he was the highest finishing teaching pro at the Senior PGA Championship and also Monday qualified for the James Hardie.
In the role of caddy, Gillis said: “You know what the guy is going through. You’ve been in his shoes so you can relate.
“I notice things now I wished I had done in my own (playing) career. You can see when a player is starting to speed up or there’s some anxiety. You can really see it from the other side.
“I usually played fast, and when I look back on it, I think it would have been better if I had slowed it down a little, here and there. I didn’t play rushed, but at a pretty good pace. And there are some shots that might need to take a little longer to get a clearer picture.”
Gillis retired after playing the 2024 Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills, the same course where he started his PGA Tour career. Back pain and arthritis caused too much stiffness in the rotation needed for swinging a golf club.
“I can carry a staff bag and do most anything if I’m walking in a straight line, I just can’t do a lot of rotational stuff,” he said. “I can’t do that all week, where I’m rotating – but I can throw that staff bag up go straight up and down hills.”
When McNeal asked for help, Gillis knew he needed to get back into the gym and do some weight training in a different way. Not for golf swings, but for lifting and carrying a golf bag full of clubs.
“It’s not a golf workout anymore, it’s got more weight involved, for the legs and lower body. Going up and down the hills is the biggest challenge. So, I’m 57, but there are older guys than me out there as a caddy on the PGA Tour.”
The place where Gillis would be happy to be a rookie once again.
