Last week's trip to the Web.com Tour sure did remind me of the grind and desire that all caddies have to get to the PGA Tour. This week's caddie was both funny and thoughtful with his answers. That meant an interview that was supposed to be only 15 minutes lasted almost an hour since it was so entertaining! Enjoy.
Collins: This week the caddies have their own locker room at the Dean & Deluca Invitational at Colonial?
Caddie: They have set up the ladies locker room as our locker room this week. And it says right on the door that our guest badge is allowed right in there with us! So it's a great (tournament) to bring a friend or your spouse out to. The treatment that we get there has a lot to do with (caddie) James Edmondson, because he's a member there.
Collins: Do you think other tournaments could follow suit?
Caddie: This day and age, there's only so many events a player can play in. The more hospitable they can make it for the caddies ... most of the players I've worked for, I haven't had a major say in what their schedule is, but every now and then you'll get asked, "Do you wanna go play this event?" If that event is a good host to the caddies, they're more likely to get the caddie lobbying to go to that event.
Collins: What about Trinity Forest Golf Club, where they held the Caddie Championship on Monday and where they'll be hosting the AT&T Byron Nelson next year?
Caddie: The golf course, to me, it's hard for me to sling mud, because there's been plenty of mud slung at the golf course we currently played (TPC Four Seasons Resort). There are players who've gone on record to say they don't like it. They don't like the month that we're here. It's always windy.
Collins: Anyone who says that probably also says the ocean is too wet.
Caddie: (laughing) I do have family that live down here, in Texas, and from what I understand, May is always very windy. But as far as the golf course goes, it's nothing like I've ever seen before. You almost have to travel overseas to see a links-style golf course. It should be by salt water. ... To have a golf course that style landlocked is just really different. I'm not saying that it's not gonna work. I'm just saying it's a really different look.
Collins: I'm gonna put you on the spot. Players who show up having never seen the course before will react how?
Caddie: I think it'll be 50-50. This is what I'm gonna say, and it's as critical as I can be: There isn't going to be any in between, Michael. They're either gonna love it or they're gonna hate it. From the golf course side, because the greens are big, they're going to be fast. It just has a completely different look that a lot of U.S. players aren't used to looking at. ... If you show up to that tournament next year and you're just going to do your normal thing, play one practice round and hopefully play the pro-am, I don't know if that's enough to be ready for that event. I feel like, as a caddie, you could caddie that place 15 times and on the 16th time you would still learn something new.
Collins: The Caddie Championship was sponsored by AT&T. What's it like now having corporations that also sponsor multiple PGA Tour events working with caddies?
Caddie: What I personally like is the opportunity for the tour and the sponsors to realize that we're just one of their partners. ... We're an asset to them and we should be utilized that way.
Collins: You walked away from caddying for a while. Did you think you were done for good?
Caddie: I thought that I was. I have a wife and (kids). Caddying requires you to be gone. I'd say the average caddie is gone about 30 weeks a year, some a little less, some a little more. But it puts a tremendous strain on trying to keep a family together. ... And it's not missing the big things like the football games or the musicals that your kids are in, it's helping them do their homework. It's missing going to church with them on Sundays. It's missing just the little things like helping out around the house, or making a dinner, or folding that last little bit of laundry so everybody has clean clothes and everything runs.
So if you're asking, did I think I was done? I think I was ready for a little break. I had a nice run. I worked for an outstanding player, an outstanding person. It was just time for me to see if I could use my ... degree and go out in the real world and kinda stake my claim. Some things happened, life happens, and I ended up going back to caddying. It's something that, I try not to have any regrets. Getting back into caddying for me personally was the best choice, but I'm not 100 percent (sure) that it's the best thing for my family.
Collins: What was that phone call like? "Hey man. Whatcha doing for the next couple weeks?"
Caddie: It's sort of funny, Michael, because I was kind of out of sight, out of mind. I was gone for (redacted) years. There was one (guy) I worked with a little bit and he said, "Hey, would you like to work for a player, he's coming up. He's got his card. He could use some veteran help. (He would benefit from) someone who's been out there and could have fun with him and, ya know, who's had the experience on tour."
I happened to be in my (work) territory at the time, and caddied for that person and then made the decision: "You know what, I'm not sure that I really wanna go back to caddying" (so he didn't.) It wasn't because of that player, it was just because of that same lifestyle. So I took a different job (not in golf). ... And then we had the old market meltdown in '07 and '08. And listen, it wasn't me that did that. ... My hand was sort of forced due to the economy...
I wanted to go back to something that I had made a living, I had supported my family. So when I came back for real, I sat in the parking lot (unemployed looking for a bag). I stayed with friends, I asked guys to help me out -- you know, can I room with two or three guys in a room. I had a little bit of money saved up to come back out and give it another shot, and I was fortunate enough to lock down a job for about three months. And by that time, I ended up getting hired by another player and went on a five-year run. It's always exciting to get back to doing things that you know how to do.
Collins: I'm just going to be adding and subtracting.
Caddie: (laughs) Right! It's not an easy job by any means. The travel, the logistics, the constantly living out of a suitcase, the delayed flights, the rental cars that aren't ready, the hotels when you're ... looking for an extra bed, all the nonsense that we have to put up with. But at the end of the day, I only end up with two bosses, usually. The player and my wife! When you work in the real world, you have hundreds of bosses, it seems like...
For me, I've always loved being outside, always loved the challenge of caddying. I like working with somebody to see how good they can get and how far they can go. There's nothing that helps that like success. You get out there and you have a couple of strong weeks with somebody or a player gets hot right away and you just happen to be along for the ride. That's what you're really hoping for.
Collins: When do caddies get the most nervous about getting fired?
Caddie: I think most caddies would get nervous after a prolonged period of missing cuts. Or a period in which the player had a lot of chances to break through. Whether it's a top-20 or a top-10 or maybe even a top-5, and they just have a track record of always making a bogey or double-bogey on the last two or three holes and it always seems to cost them.
If you end up in that situation you wanna stay positive, you wanna believe that you're helping the player and you're never hurting the player. But after times like that, you know in this day and age the result is all that really matters. It's just the reality of the game. If you're not swimming, you're sinking. ... I put a lot of pressure on myself, ya know, like, "Hey, maybe I could've said something different in this situation." But when I look back on it, what I try to do (is) be the same guy on the front nine on Thursday. If I'm the same guy on the back nine on Sunday, I think I'm doing my job because my job is not to jump on that emotional roller coaster with that player. My job is to enforce the game plan that we've spoken about and really just pay attention and hold him accountable.
(We're) only changing the game plan when we're trying to make a cut on a Friday or trying to back-door a top-10 or maybe trying to win. Sometimes you have to throw that strategy away and say, "OK, now it's time to get after 'em." Or go off the script. I believe a lot of these players try to take as much anger and fear and emotion out of the game as possible. If you have a caddie out there who's headless and a raving lunatic, who's screaming and yelling and just as upset as you are, I don't see how that could be a good combination...
In my experience, and I've been hired and fired plenty ... you know in your gut that you're gonna get "the flick" or the bullet is coming.
Collins: Yep.
Caddie: And the way that it works is, you think, "OK, well, maybe this week he'll play good enough that I'll last another week or I'll last another month" -- and that has definitely happened before. But in most cases, you just have to step back and realize -- I had an old caddie a long time ago say, "If you caddie out here long enough, you will get fired. That's just the nature of the game." A lot of times when I look back on when I've been let go by players, it's actually a good thing because I'm not helping them and they're really not helping me. When you're in that situation, it's almost better to be at home or be available because there might be some other player out there that you match up with really well.
Collins: Funniest thing you've heard a caddie say to a player to try and motivate him?
Caddie: ... One of the classic ones that I've heard was "Bullet" (Bob Burns, who was working for Fulton Allem). Fulton was having a rough go. He was saying how upset he was and how pissed he was. Finally, he angrily said, "Bullet, give me something to break!" Bullet replied, "How about par?"
(laughing) I got two more for ya.
(The way this story was told to me was) ... there was a time when a caddie happened to be on a hole that was drivable (par-4). The player took the caddie's advice (hitting driver). When they were walking down the hole, the caddie's phone started to ring in the player's bag! The caddie answered the phone and said, "Yes. OK. Yeah, I think you're right." Then hung up the phone. The player said, "Who was that?" The caddie replied, "It was me mum. She couldn't believe you hit driver there either."
Collins: Is that true?
Caddie: Yeah. ... And there was another (story I heard): You know how guys are now starting to carry around, like, those alignment sticks and those big stretching poles that have that big red thing on there? And you know how some guys make it mandatory that we carry the umbrella no matter what, even though we're playing in the desert? We're playing in the Mojave Desert and it hasn't rained in, like, 2,000 years, but...
Collins: Yeah, don't take that four-pound umbrella out!
Caddie: But sometimes that umbrella, if things aren't going well and you carry that thing on a nice hot sunny day and the player shoots 65. If (the umbrella) is out the next day, the player is like, "Hey, where's that umbrella?" It kinda works both ways.
Well, one of these guys had a stretching pole in the bag during the practice rounds, and after a couple weeks this thing was staying in the golf bag during the regular rounds. So finally the caddie worked up the courage to say, "Hey, why am I carrying this stretching pole in the event? I understand we're gonna warm up with it, but after we can give it to the agent or go put it in the locker or put it in the trunk of the car before we go." The player said that it's part of the equipment and needs to be in the bag at all times. Fast-forward: They get out on the golf course (during a tournament round) and the player hits it in an area where he's got a big conundrum. Can't figure out what club to use, so the caddie says, "Why don't we use that stretching pole. Since it's part of the equipment." And that broke the tension.
You know, you either have to not care that you're gonna get fired, which really makes a good caddie. Or have such a good relationship that you're just trying to defuse the situation here, like, "OK, let's make the bogey or try and do our best to make the par." A lot of times that little bit of humor can save the round, even save the tournament, when you really look back at it.