A couple of days in the life of a Caddy

in retrospect : by Norm Woods

I recently had the pleasure of spending three days at The Seaforth Golf Club caddying for son, Steve at the Canadian Tour stop in Seaforth. In what maybe a first, a member of the golf media had the opportunity to play right alongside the young professionals and experience the ups and downs of golf in a real life, real time pressure cooker. And it was also a pressure cooker for the caddy. Carrying the bag, watching for wayward golf shots, reading the daily pin sheet, making sure the flagstick was pulled at the appropriate time, reading putts, keeping up, and generally trying to keep the golfer under control and relaxed is a tough job. That it is. And also tiring.

My life (well 3 days) as a caddy.

We traveled to Seaforth on Wednesday to register and play a practice round. The drive to the golf course from our home in Elora was just under 90 minutes. Following check-in Steve wanted to spend some time hitting a few balls. The range was full, with golfers hitting plenty of wedges, a few irons and fewer drives. Every shot looked absolutely perfect to me. Not too many misses at all, if any. How will Steve fit in? As he began his warm-up I looked around and noticed a number of players eyeing him curiously, like who is this guy? Is he good and where did he come from? Steve went through his routine of hitting wedges, hybrids, irons and driver for about 45 minutes and, quite frankly, didn’t look out of place.

I finally said, let’s go and play the golf course. So we wandered over to the first tee and headed out, just the two of us. He made a lot of good shots, shot par on a few holes, bogeyed a few and even birdied a couple. He seemed pretty comfortable working around the track for the first time as we made some mental notes as to where we’d like to place tee shots etc. At the turn we were approached by a golfer asking if he could join us on the back nine. We said, sure. He turned out to be Scott Gibson, a six year veteran of The Canadian Tour and, as it turns out, he was a wealth of knowledge and information for both of us with respect to an inside look at the the life of a young golf pro on The Canadian Tour (Gibson ended up finishing 6th at -18 with rounds of 67, 65, 66, 68). Gibson, from Huntington Beach California, was very forthright with his comments about Seaforth, The Tour, his fellow players and also gave Steve some veteran advice on how to play certain holes. “Basically, everybody fires at everything so you’d better too. See this hole here, it’s a short par 4 — play it as a 3!” were just a few of Gibson’s candid comments about the need to go low or how to book airline tickets.

Following the practice round we headed home for a good night’s sleep and to prepare for Day One, when the real golf begins. The nervous caddy had no trouble sleeping that night although I woke up a few times wondering how the next day might evolve (I guess it was caddyitis).

Our first day tee time was at 2:40PM. We were in a pairing with a golfer named Terry O’Brien, someone I had not heard about previously and was not listed on the Tour membership file. We guessed he was a sponsor exemption or a Monday qualifier. As it turned out, Terry was a Monday qualifier. Well, here we were, last group of the day with the name Woods! Sound familiar?

After a 40 minute warm-up on the range and a 15 minute session on the putting green, the we headed over to the 10th (our starting hole for the day). This is a relatively long par 3 over water and uphill. We picked up our pin sheet for the day, caddy bibs were handed out, introductions were completed (Terry’s dad, Terry Sr. was the other caddy in the group). Two golfers and two fathers. The players were announced and the round began. My knees were knocking and inside I was praying that Steve’s first shot would be a good one. And it was. He hit the green and the ball rolled just off the green on the left side. What a relief. From this point on it was a fast moving game of golf. Terry played almost flawlessly, but he was certainly not intimidating. He kept very much to himself and was also helpful to both of us with the odd issue that we were not quite sure of.

For the poor old caddy, it was cleaning clubs, fixing ball marks, removing the pin, making the towel available when needed, providing the requested club at the appropriate time and just trying to keep up (and shut up).

The rough was extremely long and nerves were certainly a factor (for both Steve and me). Generally he played very well, but one stroke difference on most holes adds up pretty quickly. Terry shot a -3 on the first day, and for a young professional trying to make it in golf, I thought he played quite well.

A tired golfer and an even more tired caddy headed back to Elora, stopping for a quick bite in Listowel, and into bed. Day two tee time was 9:20 AM.

My summary of Day One was that Steve was happy with the experience and all that was learned, but not very happy with his score. I was happy just to finish the day!

Day Two was the same group, starting on Hole #1 and the hole by hole results were much the same as Day One. The rough was just as long and the greens were just as tricky. As we finished the 12th hole the rains came (has there been any golf event this year, anywhere, that has not had some rain?). Now with everything else I was trying to do I had to manipulate an umbrella. Good thing we had one as it poured for the last eight holes. Golf in dry weather is tough enough but trying to keep grips dry, the golfer dry, the clubs dry, the ball dry was quite a challenge. The caddy was soaked.

We finished the round and Terry and his dad joined us in the tent where we all attempted to get dry and discussed the two days. Terry made the cut and went on to play Day Three and Four.

Steve and I headed back to Elora and talked about the experience. The three days gave both of us a new understanding of the rigors of professional golf and what the players go through, scratching and clawing to make it to the ‘Big Tour’ where the ‘big money’ is. It’s a tough grind and Steve and I gained a new level of respect for all the young players working their way up the ladder.

And not to forget the caddy. It’s taken me three days to unwind and get my nerves back on an even keel. Will I ever forget the three days? Never. It was an experience of a lifetime.

Great fun and thanks to the famous Doig family of Seaforth who put on a wonderful show with their army of volunteers and the staff of The Canadian Tour. If you ever have the chance to spend a day at a Canadian Tour event, go out and watch. These kids are really good! And so are their caddies!