Forget Adam Scott or Geoff Ogilvy, the leading Australian at the US PGA Players Championship was caddie Shay Knight.

Knight, a long-time looper for Australian Matt Jones before a short stint with American DJ Trahan, switched to Scottish golfer Martin Laird last week and scooped up immediate rewards.

When Laird tied second on Sunday Knight collected more money in one week than he did all last season.

Standard caddie/player contracts on the US Tour sit between eight and 10 per cent of winnings.

Jones won $US602,392 ($A603,750) in 2011 while Laird pocketed $US627,000 ($A628,400) for finishing two shots behind winner Matt Kuchar alongside three other players in Florida.

Had the Scotsman made his six-foot par attempt on the 72nd hole he would have been second outright, and collected a $US1,028,000 ($A1.03 million) payday.

In other words, the bogey probably cost Knight over $US30,000 ($A30,068), but he wasn’t complaining.

After parting ways with Jones early in the year and only a few weeks into his relationship with Trahan, Knight was excited when Laird called.

“You can’t knock back a top 50 player in the world so I jumped at the opportunity,” Knight said.

“Obviously Martin and I get along great and the performance shows that.”

Knight has known Laird for years, going back to when the Scotsman played on the Nationwide Tour with Jones.

Their friendship made the transition easy, with Laird attributing plenty of his success to his new bagman.

“He just kind of helps keep me a little looser,” Laird said.

“I’d had the same caddie for four-and-a-half years, and having a new guy kind of relaxed me.

“We’ve been friends for years and it was kind of nice to be out on the course and be able to chat away to someone that’s my age and is like a friend as opposed to a caddie.”

Knight’s move from Trahan had another silver lining for an Australian with Jarrod Lyle’s caddie Shannon Wallis picking up the American’s bag.

Wallis had been out of work since Lyle’s re-diagnosis with acute myeloid leukemia in early March.