Tony Finau is among the elite field of 20 golfers competing in the Hero World Challenge this week.
His caddie in the Bahamas is a member of a different elite field: the Forbes list of richest Americans.
Finau’s regular caddie Mark Urbanek reportedly didn’t make the trip so that he could stay home with his expecting wife. In stepped good friend Ryan Smith, whom according to Forbes has a net worth of $1.5 billion.
Smith, 43, founded the cloud computing company Qualtrics, which was several years later acquired by SAP for $8 billion. In October of 2020, Smith led a group that bought a majority stake in the NBA’s Utah Jazz for $1.66 billion.
Smith started playing golf as a kid growing up in Utah and worked at a course when he was 14. He has been friends with Finau for years and the two have paired up in the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach and the Dunhill Pro-Am in Scotland.
Smith owns a house on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links and reportedly finalized the sale of his company to SAP in that house.
“Pebble Beach is like our home away from home and it’s been a huge, crazy part of our lives,” he once told the Deseret News.
This week, he’s helping Finau climb the leaderboard in the Bahamas. Finau opened with a 68 and followed that with a 66 to get within a shot of second-round leader Bryson DeChambeau, who leads at 11 under.
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