[Brad Tufts]

I just couldnt resist....my top 5:

5.  St. Andrews, '99....I had the fortune to have a great caddy named Ron for my Old Course round, and was able to find him again two weeks later for another OC round (not too difficult, considering he was sitting on the same bench when I first met him).  A great guy, he had some gems over our two rounds, including telling how the caddies make obscene gestures to the helicopters that survey TOC for video games and high-quality photos, and a constant needling of the subhuman "bag carriers" ("so, your man can carry it 240 into the wind can he?").

4.  Stonewall, '02...our caddy told us how a certain member let one of his group's caddies hit a tee shot on each par three in every round he played, offering $100K for a hole-in-one, and $10K to each of the other caddies if it ever happened.  Apparently it happened the year before, and our looper had "missed that damn loop by ten f***in' minutes."  Our day also included a Tom Ridge sighting.

3.  Turnberry, '99...we are on the first par three on the back 9, and someone in our group blades a mid-iron about 2 ft off the ground, and we watch it roll all the way on the green.  His caddy, who apparently carried for Calcavecchia in the last Turnberry Open, says, "oh, that's an ABF!"  We ask him what he means, and he replies "Alabama Butt F***er!!"  I still have no idea what this refers to.....

2.  Prestwick, '99....teeing off one of the back nine holes, my father's buddy Steve is told by his caddy to "hit it overrr the fooootpath," to which he replies...."What the hell's a fruitpath?"

1.  Ireland, '00...a member of my home club in the states travels every year with a group of guys to western Ireland....Waterville, Ballybunion, Old Head, Lahinch, etc...one round he drew a redheaded female caddy in her lower twenties.  He asks her near the end of the round where the hot spot in town for some drinking and irish music.  During the evening, after multiple rounds, the girl walks in and strikes up conversation.  Long story short, they spent a rambunctious evening together between the sheets, including a rather classic, yet unfortunately unrepeatable in this medium, cry of passion relating to their act and her caddie profession.  The member is still ribbed about this on a weekly basis.

--Brad

[THuckaby2]

This is funny... I thought Lou's story occurred the round he played at CPC with myself, Dr. Childs and the inimitable Mr. Cirba, with Mr. Hendren watching... In fact I can recall it plain as day being said... is it possible the caddies said this to Lou TWICE at those venerable golf grounds?

Lou, you need to set this straight.  Not that it matters one iota, just weird we all seem to remember this.

You think the caddies loved you, Dave?  In me they had an overawed, happy to be there at all, happy to have a caddie at all, non-divot taking, fawning for advice, smiling and gawking geek who demanded nothing and overtipped just to keep his host (or make that arranger) happy. On top of that I had the tiny bag. At least at that place, I had to be a caddie's dream.

 

TH

[Brian_Gracely]

Is it true that the caddies at CPC don't replace divots?  I was told that because there are so few rounds a day that there is a clean-up crew that comes around at night and fills them all in.  

[THuckaby2]

(Tom, I don't know if that guy loved me or not.  Knowing how they are out there, if I had to bet, I'd bet he was indifferent.  That seems to be the prevalent mindset among the crew out there.)

 

Interesting... in my trips around that shrine, I have always had caddies that at least appeared to be very interested in me.  Now maybe it's luck, maybe it's my naivete and awe, maybe I'm wrong... but I have had nothing but great experience there.

Interestingly also, the only bad caddie experience I've had really has been at St. Andrews Old Course the last time I was there, where I got a guy who was worse than indifferent:  he was insistent that his way was the only way, that I was an idiot, and he had no reticence in telling me so.  Not a nice guy, and we had a very poor round.  It was telling, to me anyway, that when I went around again the next day sans caddie I achieved a score a dozen shots lower.

This is no comment on The Old Course, btw - at least not by me.  Previous times I have had wonderful caddies there, who did add to the experience tremendously.

TH

TH

[gookin]

I am on Dave Hill's bag during the 1970 Four-Ball Championship at Laurel Valley as an enthusiastic 15 year old.  He is playing with his brother Mike Hill.  Mike plays like a dog all week and helps on 2 or 3 holes the entire tournament. Practically on his own Dave Hill finishes in third or fourth place about four shots behind the winning team of Palmer and Nicklaus. One his own ball Dave shot four rounds in the 60's.The whole week passes without Dave Hill even asking my name.  Finally Sunday after the last round he asks me my name so he can fill out a check. Dave's share of the purse was about $5,000. He rights me a check for $147. Nice guy.

[Rick Shefchik]

Funny thing about Dave Hill - a friend of mine caddied for him in 1970 at the U.S. Open at Hazeltine, where Hill crafted his reputation as one of the tour's biggest assholes, and my friend had a great experience. Dave called my buddy by his name all week, even asked him for advice on a couple of putts, and wrote him a nice check after he finished second.

Maybe he got cheaper as the season went on, or the finishes got lower.

[Jason Topp]

One more.  On the Old course - 2000, late afternoon.  

Caddy's name is Jimmy.  Player goes spasmic down the stretch.  He hits it out of bounds on 16 - no reaction.  He hits it over the roof of the old course hotel on 17 - no reaction.  On 18, he hits a grounder that goes over the Swilican burn but under the bridge - no reaction.  He then hits an eight iron dead right onto the road and about kills Jimmy's family that was waiting for him.  Jimmy finally says - "I thought you might do that."

[THuckaby2]

David:

Well... I have yet to have a caddie on the Monterey Peninsula give me anything close to what you'd call "lip", and that's two to three times as many rounds as you've had.

Strange.

Or maybe not.

One does tend to see what he wants to see, or not.  

I get your point, anyway.

But I also must be just damn lucky with caddies.

TH

[JESII]

Shivas appears a bit down on caddies at the moment, perhaps that will change after his next tournament round .
You never know.

[THuckaby2]

Oh, please, don't give me that "or maybe not" crap, like I somehow induced Lou's caddy to tell him to pick up his own fricking divots because he's too busy doubling.  That had nothing to do with me.  Neither did the jagoff who was incapable of answering a straight question but was VERY capable of telling everybody how to play every shot, despite being asked not to.  Or the guy who tried to tell us that we should play the up tees, despite a combined group handicap of about 15.  Or the guy who -- although he insisted on carrying doubles -- refused to do so unless he was able to switch bags to his carry bags, and ended up getting us cold and wet because his crappy bags didn't have enough room for a rainsuit, a sweater and an umbrella.  OH, WAIT, that wasn't one guy -- that was EVERYBODY!  

The kid at Cypress was fine.  He was a good caddy. Very good.  He'd have been perfect, but for the marginal lipoff to Lou.

Not sure where you are getting all this, it's not what I meant at all.  Hell I still think that comment to Lou happened in the round with us, but in any case it wasn't my intention to say you had anything to do with it.  What I meant was some would call that "lip", some with great Catholic guilt would think to himself "shit, the guy is working hard, the least I can do is pick up my own divots."  Just two different ways of looking at it, and none of us is completely consistent in either way.

As for the rest, well... we have had different experiences.  We also likely have different expectations.  Nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

Smile, Dave.

 

[JESII]

Shivas

I understand your point about #2 at PB, but the same guy cannot make the argument that there are options on that tee shot and there are no options on #13 at ANGC. Sorry, but I could not let that pass.

Sully

[tlavin]

A sampler of good caddie lines:

After a reasonably good shot: "That's a Mexican."
Translation: It'll work.

After a solid drive: "Sore dick."
Translation: You can't beat it.

Lipped putt: "Lewinsky."
Translation: All lip and no hole.

[Bob_Huntley]

The caddies at CPC when in the company of a member are fine. Some, when with the unaccompanied guest become obnoxious. No one, member, unaccompanied guest or wohsoever should ever take lip from a caddie. If anyone needs to hear the magic words... ask me.

[Jason Mandel]

Shivas,

When I played at pebble 6 years ago the thing that really got to me was when the caddy showed up to meet us, the first thing he did immediately was to take our bags back to the caddy shack and switch them out for 2 easy to carry pebble bags.  mind you the bags we already had were pretty light stand bags.  as a former caddy that really pisses me off to see that.  then the guy did somethign i've never seen on the east coast but according to him is common on the penninsula, carrying BOTH bags over one shoulder.  well sure he could do that cause he had taken pretty much everything out of our bags except the clubs, a half dozen balls and tees.  

the forecaddying thing i can see how they sort of justify, given the nature of the place its easy for rounds to take a long while and im sure they are pressed to help push pace of play, not that it was an issue with your group.

jason

[JESII]

Shivas

I agree 100% with your position about the caddy offering you no options, but on #2 at Pebble   . The only option (other than directly down the middle) available is left edge of the fairway if the pin is back right. When I caddied we were trained (mainly by the experienced caddies) to always have one of us out forecaddying. You can do this effectively by asking your player, as you are approaching one hole, which clubs they might use on the next. You can easily explain the options and then do one of two things, hand the club(s) for your players to the other caddy or place them on the tee and get out into good position to forecaddy. One caddy is always on the green helping with putts and one is forecaddying. The system works pretty well with two good caddies, because reading greens for four is a bit of a challenge especially if you're cleaning balls and handing out clubs for the next hole. you may think this is cutting the work in half, but the goal is not to make the caddy work as hard as possible, it is to make the players day as enjoyable as possible and this method works really well to that end.

[Mike_Golden]

Here are 3:

Great Experience:  It's January, 1983 and I'm in Scotland on business and drive up to St. Andrews.  I haven't played it 6 months, don't have my clubs, there's snow on the ground where I'm staying (Glenrothes, about 45 minutes away), but want to see TOC anyway.  I arrive about 11:30, see a bunch of people on the golf course, so walk up to the starter shack and find out I can get out right away-the starter points me to a place to hire clubs (I have shoes and a golf glove) and I ask him to get me a caddy.  I meet Danny on the 1st tee a few minutes later-he's about 70 years old, short, thin, and looks like he enjoys his scotch.  Danny tells me he has caddied at TOC for over 50 years and carried for Kel Nagle when he won the Open there (I'm sure it's possible that every caddie tells the same story, but maybe it was true).  Anyway, Danny leads me around TOC by the nose (in really horrible conditions-35 degrees, 30 mph winds) and I had a truly memorable experience.  He would simply put his foot where he wanted me to putt the ball and seemed to know every green and putt without even looking at the line.  On #14 (is that where Hell bunkers are?) he pointed me on a line that didn't look right-I asked him-why over there, and his response was truly noteworthy-'there's Hell over there, laddie'.

Bad Experience:  Pinehurst #2-I get 'Doc' on my bag.  Doc is an elderly guy who seems like he might have something of a drinking problem.  I could barely understand a word he said the entire round.  On the 5th hole I'm off the green in the back and he points a line out (almost away from the hole into the hill) that just looks like there's no way it's right.  So I hit it exactly where he pointed and it comes right back at me-I question him about it and he says, 'you needed to hit it harder'-sure, and the ball could have been back at the tee, Doc.

Horrible experience:  SFGC a couple of years ago-2 of us are sharing a caddy and he's giving us yardages that are probably off by about 10 yards.  So I miss about 3 greens in a row long from the middle of the fairway (which I never do) and question him about the yardage.  I get no response so ask the other caddy for yardage on the next hole.  My game is going down the toilet by now and the caddy cops an attitude with me.  We didn't talk the rest of the round and I doubt that I broke 90.  I guess it could have been worse but I had been COMPED, that's right, Barney, COMPED, FREAKING COMPED (because I'm a member of the green committee at Lake Merced and our greenskeeper set it up) so it wasn't a total loss except I felt so bad for my partner I paid off his bets to the winners (that's how bad I played on the back nine).  

[Dan Kelly]

I've just barely begun to skim this thread -- but have seen several references to caddies' reading putts.

Am I the only one here who thinks that having your caddie read putts for you is inimical to the prevailing spirit of gca.com?

I want to make my own mistakes (and, occasionally, otherwise), thank you very much!

[A_Clay_Man]

  PS -- Adam, tell me that you don't know that this goes on at Pebble exactly as I described?  

Dave- I can tell you that everything you have described, is somewhat foriegn to me. Especially the lipping off part.

As far as efficeint caddying goes, handing a guy his driver on #2 is standard. Not laziness. I rarely waited ahead and to the side, prefferring to go to the tee because this was a good chance to talk with the guest. Since there is a usual wait for the fairway to clear. If the golfer is undecided (or a prick/schmuck) hand him a 3 wood too. Nobody doesn't hit driver there.

In other instances where the caddy does not go to the teeing ground, it is standard op to inform the golfer of his options and hand him the clubs he may need. It is rare to get a golfer who feels so insecure that he needs his caddy with him the entire time.

Truthfully Dave, you must have the worse luck. But maybe this explains why so many repeat knowledgable players lock up their caddies, up to a year in advance. The good ones are often hard to get.

[JESII]

Shivas

I absolutely believe in that method. Did it ever occur to you that you kept your players waiting while you "double-bag sprinted" out ahead 250 yards after explaining their options? I do not think once in the couple of thousand non-tournament rounds caddied did I hear the players say they were playing USGA rules, sorry . You always have the option to ask the caddy to help you on each tee, and I agree with Bob Huntley that no player should get any lip from a caddy, but they do need to be respected.

Sully

[Craig Sweet]

You've played Pebble Beach??

Gee, I've never played it. It must be a wonderful experience.

[nandoal]

Anybody that has had "New York" Mike at Bel-Air CC, would have a few storys after having him on their bag.

[ian]

A different sort of story.

I played Hamilton Golf & Country Club this year and drew a 14 year old girl as my caddie. Hamilton features a real true Jr. caddie program that is Canada's best Junior program period.

She was very shy, which made me determined to bring her out of her shell. I asked her to read putts and think about shots as if she were playing. By the end of the round I had learned about her, got here actively caddying, and had a steady conversation going.

That remains my favourite recent experience.


Someone here had a quote that said something like "treat your caddy like your son." It remains sage advice.

[bodgeblack]

The Open at St. Andrews in 1990. Howard Clark the European Ryder Cup player is standing on the 17th tee on the Friday, 1 shot inside the cut.

He tees it it up and carves his drive into the hotel, OB. He pegs it up once more and again his ball soars OB into the hotel grounds.

Exasperated, dejectedly he says "I could be here all day!" then a voice from the crowd says "Aye laddie but ye wont be here tomorrow!"

Ah the Scottish sense of humour and proof of being the most knowledgable of golf crowds!
cheers
jamie

[Lloyd_Cole]

In 1974 being the 13 year old son of the golf club steward (clubhouse manager) and living on the property I was soon elevated to 'preferred caddy' for the pro, Leo Feeney. Obviously, someone was needed and there was no-one else around, and I was happy to receive the insider's discount on my Penfold Aces. The captain and the pro would challenge allcomers every week on a Friday and I ws usually on the bag; 'on the bag' meaning pulling his pullcart and telling him his yardages. I had a fantastic education in the game of golf through these adventures and on only one occasion was it problematic.
Mr Feeney was, without dispute, the best player in the surrounding area (US citizens read small state or county) and if not for a devout catholic lifestyle which produced offspring on a regular basis, you might have heard more of Leo, as it was he took a club job and made a good living teaching, some proffesionals even. Eamon Darcy was a client, and if you had ever seen Leo hit the ball you might understand why Eaomon might want to swing that way. So, in 1975 when Leo told me I was to caddy in the county proffesional championship I saw no reason for concern. I was, indeed, excited. Sherwood Forest GC was well known and I was looking forward to conquering it. What I hadn't figured on was the golf bag which in had pulled for the previous 18 months. It had to be carried. Noboby today can imagine how heavy the leather bags of the 60's and 70's were. Really, really heavy. You don't have the energy to confiscate cameras if you're carrying one of these. I don't remember making it to the 18th green, but I guess I must have done. I have no recollection of the supposedly fabulous course. Only the pain. And trying not to collapse.  We went back to the pull cart (trolley) and not much was spoken of Sherwood Forest, Leo hadn't won, he was probably one of the favourites, it must have been me..
That post was longer than intended, more in another.

[SPDB]

Three pages and not a single story about Rocky Carbone? The only ones I have decorum prohibits me from relating in such a public forum.

One that I experienced at PV (non-Rocky) involved a friend's drive on 4 that was rapidly careering off to the right. We all fixed our gaze at the caddies in hopes of one of their hand signals which would indicate that the ball, while not ideally positioned, was, nevertheless found.

What we received were unfamiliar signals:

After emerging from an abnormally low and long crouch, focused on something amid the trees, the caddy, first,waved both hands in the direction of the road, which was not terribly enlightening given that all of us had witnessed the shape of the shot.

He next turned to the tee and held both hands in front of him and began jostling them in a circular motion as if pantomiming a man driving a car.

This was followed in quick succession by a lowering (and steadying) of the hands. It was now his hips that were jostling, in an all too familiar act of sexual gesture.

We all looked bemusedly at one another.

When we reached the caddy, we said we were pretty certain that we got the signal that the ball was way out on the right, but what were the other signals?

He replied: "Well you're ball was way out right onto the road; it then ran down the road for a ways and now your f*cked behind a tree"

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