By mustang6560 on 7/21/11

In light of the news yesterday that Tiger Woods and Steve Williams called it quits, it got my thinking about the uncertainty of caddying on the PGA Tour, and at any competitive level for that matter.

You hear the word "grind" used a lot to describe the life of up and coming golfers hoping to land a card on the PGA Tour, but I think the word is much more applicable to the life of a caddie. Outside of bad breaks and weather, the player is in control of his own fate at the end of the day. As a caddie, even if your numbers are spot on and you performed well, your life line is completely dependent on the performance of the player. He misses the cut, you miss the cut. He gets pissed, you get fired.

Josh Sens wrote an in-depth piece on Golf.com about what it's like to be an aspiring caddie and I think this paragraph sums up the experience best:

Caddying is a job that seems fit mostly for misfits. The hours are long, the pay uncertain and the travel relentless. For caddies on the bags of the world's top players, work may come with private jets and princely treatment. But for those not nicknamed Stevie, Bones or Fluff, the job is as often a mad scramble, filled with Priceline searches and gigs that offer freedom but no guarantees.

Caddying is definitely not for everyone and that includes me. The idea of having to rely solely on someone else - and that someone usually has no loyalties to you whatsoever - to get paid sounds terrible. Plus, you could help someone make it all the way to the top only to get fired because that someone opted to go with a better known caddie.

The article is a great read and it offers tremendous insight into the what you have to be willing to do to make it as a caddie. If you know of anyone is considering the life of a looper, make sure you send this article to them.



Read More

photo by Bill Spruce