Point Counterpoint
Are Caddies Critical to the Success
YES
Sometimes in life, being
The Guy can be overrated.
When you’re The Guy, everyone
looks to you, relies on you, puts pressure on you. Everybody wants something. It can be suffocating. Sometimes, being The Guy
Behind The Guy is a little more hip. Like being the special adviser to the President of the United States—you have the Oval Office secret key, and you know where the bodies are buried, but don’t have to do any press conferences. Or being the guy in the record-
ing studio when the Beatles cut “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” You know the secret meaning of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” but when you head out onto the street, you’re not mobbed by fans who won’t let you go to the bathroom. This is why being a PGA Tour cad-
die is one of the most underrated gigs around. Augusta National? You’re inside the
ropes, and getting paid. U.S. Open? You feel the Sunday intensity full-force, and don’t have to hit a single fairway. British Open? You can touch the ghost of Old Tom Morris, and don’t have to shred wrist ligaments trying to hit out of the gorse. In short, you are the Zelig of golf.
You are everywhere, and yet nobody knows it. You see everything, and yet nobody sees you. You know everything, and yet nobody asks you. Well, in the case of Tiger Woods’
caddie Stevie Williams, maybe you don’t know EVERYTHING. . .but you get the picture. To want anything else—fame, riches,
groupies—is just plain selfish. Plus, you get to wear shorts to work
every day, and nobody hassles you. Some of the great characters
throughout arts and literature were the equivalent of PGA Tour caddies, increasing caddy stock.
22 NCGA Golf SPRING 2010
In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the only
guy who spoke any sense into Lear was the Fool, who followed him into the storm, speaking only harsh truths. Similarly, caddies will show up, even
in a downpour, and speak the words a player needs to hear: “You’ll never get there with 5-iron today, boss.” When a gallery member needs to
be shushed or a photographer needs to be disciplined, the caddy steps up and lays down the law, only without the horse head. Caddies can be dogged victims of
inexorable fate. If a player misses a few cuts, or thinks the caddie has mis- clubbed him, the penalty can be bloody. Caddies are frequently fired at the whim of a reeling player. But a good caddy accepts it. He
knows there is always another bag out there, that the ebb and flow of caddying tides will bring one job to shore just as another washes away. Plus, players frequently show remorse
and ask the caddy to return, like Ernie Els asking longtime looper Ricci Rob- erts back onto Team Els. It’s not unlike asking an ex-girlfriend to move back in to try and rekindle the magic. Conversely, a longtime caddy-player
relationship can blossom in profound ways. Jim (Bones) Mackay has been with Phil Mickelson so long, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Bones on the family Christmas card wedged between the three kids and the dog, Lefty’s bag slung over his shoulder and Santa cap atop his head. And the same way the Cloak of
Invisibility can work to the caddy’s favor, the times the caddy is recognized can be hugely fulfilling. If a caddy is particularly “on,” and reads every putt correctly, ac- curately gauges every breath of wind and clubs the player with the accuracy of the atomic clock, the caddy can be granted the royal “we” status. To wit: Player A wins the Masters.
After the green jacket is slipped on, Player A says: “We had some really good distances today, and we had some awe- some lines on putts.” The listener is at first taken aback.
“What does he mean ‘we’?” you wonder. “Is this the first Masters winner named ‘Sybil’?” And then it dawns: Player A is
referring to the caddy’s help, making “I” into “we.” The listener nods slowly and approvingly. He realizes the caddy is the secret magic helper to the green jacket. The caddy’s mystical qualities grow. Any argument against caddying as a
great job can be swatted away easily. Bags are too heavy to carry? What a
great workout, instead! Player verbally abuses you? Go to thy
Bible, and turn the other cheek. Early wake-up call for tee time can be
rough on the night life? Do what most caddies do, and play hurt! (Advil and Gatorade can be beautiful things.) In sum, only a handful of men on
this planet know what the best players in the world were thinking at some of the sport’s most historic moments. When Jack Nicklaus won the 1986
Masters, his son Jackie was on the bag, and carries goosebump-inducing inside- the-ropes anecdotes. When Ben Hogan won the 1953
British Open at Carnoustie, the famed Cecil Timms was by his side, and received an engraved watch from Hogan. And when Tiger fell from grace in
late 2009, it was his longtime caddie, Stevie Williams, who was fortunate enough to use his position as Tiger’s guy to go on New Zealand TV and say: “Don’t look at me, mate!” See? The joys of caddying are many. Support your local looper.
Brian Murphy hosts the KNBR morn-
ing show “Murph and Mack” and was the San Francisco Chronicle’s golf writer from 2001-2004.
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