Terry McNamara, absolutely. He has been with her for a long time. I'm just thinking that there might be caddies that have achieved a personal GS by picking up the right bag at the right time. One guy might have trotted along with Zach Johnson, Michael Campbel, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel, and we wouldn't know about it
Can't believe that this thread has been dormant for so long. A true treasure trove of knowledge pertaining to playing the game as opposed to swinging the club.
Hoping Bennyhogan and Overkill (is that you nickname on tour?) still looks over us poor hackers, I will chime in with a few questions of my own.
1) How do you know that the chemistry with a player is gone?
2) If you are the first to detect it, will you seek employment elsewhere? (taking one for the team kind of approach)
3) Is crowd control more difficult at certain venues, or is it more depending on your status on the leaderboard?
4) If you have looped at a links course, how does it differ from a normal tourney?
5) Have you looped outside the US? How was that?
K
Happy New Year All
Thank you for the kind words; 'Overkill' is my nickname on Tour; it either has something to do with the fact that I was a Cop for over 30 years, or my prep. work, or my stat work or my detailing or something.
Sorry for the long nap, but I have been busy visiting here there and everywhere for the last while. However, it is now back to golf (work???) and I am leaving for the West Coast on Friday.
Your questions:
1. Here are some signs: When you as a caddie start tune him out; when you allow your player to do things that you know are low %; when your player seems to find something wrong or questions everything you do; when you or your player doesn't seem to care what the other is doing; and when it is no longer fun to come to work///
2. In the last 10 years I have only really detected it with one player and I quit after Westchester. I told him that we were not working together as a team and that staying together was not going to do either one of us any good. I still work with him from time to time, in fact I went to final stage of Eurp. Q school with him last year and he finished in the top 10.
3. I usually find Crowd control more of a problem when there are only a few people around; every little noise stands out and often, it seems no one is paying much attention to what is going on.
4. Yes; the biggest problem I have with links courses is the fact that with split tees, when you start on the back 9, you must leave for the tee at least 30 min. before your tee time. Your player cools down, gets bored, or becomes pissed off, etc. Pebble Beach is one of the worst for me.
5. Yes, several times; British Opens are great, they treat caddies like real people////
Terry McNamara, absolutely. He has been with her for a long time. I'm just thinking that there might be caddies that have achieved a personal GS by picking up the right bag at the right time. One guy might have trotted along with Zach Johnson, Michael Campbel, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel, and we wouldn't know about it
K
Z. Johnson - no
M. Campbel - no
B. Curtis - no
S. Micheel -no
My personal GS is to caddie in every major event in the world at least once, I have one left; - The Ryder Cup -
It's a good story. "Overkill" no doubt due to crossing T's and dotting I's. So much so that the T's and I's might be crossed out. Here's one. OK goes out before play on the day of the tourney. He shoots the pins on the par three's from the blocks and the other holes from somewhere he thinks his player will be. So he tells me the par three numbers. I mark them in my book before the round. (Remember that we shot every head on Monday). I get to the 1st par three, do my normal math, check it against "OK's number"......the same. That is Overkill.
If you don't mind my asking, Overkill, how did you go from being a cop for 30 years to being a Tour caddie?
Bigwill
Thanks for the interest
In 1992 (while I was still working in the 'real world') I was asked by a pro friend of mine to caddie for a young Aussie on a course that I knew quite well. The player was looking for an older person who could help him with the Course; caddie experience was not a requirement (good for me)
The short version is that the Aussie won, his first and my first////
He outlasted M Bradley, with S Stricker and C Dimarco right behind
S is a great guy and I was happy to see him play so well in H.
I worked a few more events and then in 1995, J Powell fired his caddie and I picked him up on the range; he was desperate// Anyway, he won the the event; my one and only Senior Tour Event.
Jan 1997 I was asked to by a young player to caddie for him at Lakeland Fl; his first pro event; he didn't win/// However he has since, on both the PGA and the Nationwide.
While at Lakeland, I worked for a player during the Wed. pro am who asked me to come work for him full time. I had told him that I was thinking about retiring after 30 years of policing.
I retired the end of March, the next week I was in Mississippi and three weeks later that same player won his first Nike Tour event, with me of course.
(By the way, that first week in Miss. I worked for one player on Mon., my own player on Tues., another player on Wed. my own player and another player on Thur. Fri. and Sat. and my player on Sun. I made over $1,000 and thought WOW, this could be OK)
At the end of my second year as a "Nike Tour Caddie" I was asked by a young player to go with him the next year to the PGA Tour. Our first year out he won twice and as they say "The rest is history".
I enjoyed my career as a police officer, but the last 10 years have been a great ride; I have been all over the World and have met a ton of wonderful people; including you all//////////
5. Yes, several times; British Opens are great, they treat caddies like real people////
That one came as a surprise. R&A for a long time had an abominable reputation among caddies in Europe. Obviously they all loved to be at the Open Championship, but their facilities were restricted to a few porta-potties.
One reason might be that the original St. Andrews caddies usually thought of themselves as the "brain" in the team, the player had it easy, all he had to do was hit the damn shot. They were the ones figuring out what club to use, what kind of shot to hit and were to aim. Sometimes that lead to conflicts with their employers, no at all uncommon that they dropped the clubs and walked into the Auld Grey Toon for a wee nip instead of watching a player botch a game.
But I understand that in the US - unlike on ET - sometimes caddies are restricted to enter locker rooms and may have difficulties in preparing their player's bag.
That one came as a surprise. R&A for a long time had an abominable reputation among caddies in Europe. Obviously they all loved to be at the Open Championship, but their facilities were restricted to a few porta-potties.
One reason might be that the original St. Andrews caddies usually thought of themselves as the "brain" in the team, the player had it easy, all he had to do was hit the damn shot. They were the ones figuring out what club to use, what kind of shot to hit and were to aim. Sometimes that lead to conflicts with their employers, no at all uncommon that they dropped the clubs and walked into the Auld Grey Toon for a wee nip instead of watching a player botch a game.
But I understand that in the US - unlike on ET - sometimes caddies are restricted to enter locker rooms and may have difficulties in preparing their player's bag.
K
On PGA Tour, caddies are still rarely ever allowed to enter the locker room; in Europe, I have allways been allowed to go where I needed to go.
Golf has become big business (thanks to Tiger). Players, trainers, coachs and caddies form part of a professional team; however, caddies for the most part, are still on the outside, looking in.
For example, on Thursday morning of a tournament last year, it was decided that there was not enough VIP parking, so the caddies, without warning, were sent to another lot, 3 miles away, with no shuttle service back to the course. Several caddies were in trouble, some just abandoned their cars; I was lucky because I came to the Course over 2 hours early.
The Tourn Chair apologized, which was an upstanding move on his part, but the damage was already done///
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