Looper Chronicles

Pete McDaniel, Willie McRae, Eddie McKenzie

On Thursday night I was in Charlotte for a unique presentation to say the least.  Long time Golf Digest editor and Tiger Woods collaboroator  Pete McDaniel was there to ask questions of two Hall of Fame caddies from Pinehurst Resort.

The idea was sparked by EVP Marketing, we just call him “E”, Tom Pashley to keep the Model A tradition of the caddie alive in a Brickyard 500 world.  Good for him. 

Walking anywhere is not just more fun and the only way one can call golf exercise,  but more importantly the way the game was designed.  Old Tom, Donald Ross, McKenzie…they never planned on you necking your drive 211 in the air and racing to your ball like DE used to get to turn two…no, they meant you to neck your drive 211 and saunter up to your ball with enough time to think about how you were going to mess up your second.

There are of course countless places where walking the course adds everything to the experience, but nowhere more so than the short grass at Pinehurst #2 .  Not to sound like an ad but you literally can hit it into Hogan’s divot…and if you have the right looper, he can show you where that is exactly.

That right looper was there Thursday.  Wille McRae slung his first leather Wilson Staff over his skinny shoulder at age 10 in 1943.   Here are a few highlights of his 65-year career…and by the way he’s not retired.

• He estimates he caddied for Donald Ross 10 times
• He estimates he caddied for Pinehurst founding family member Richard Tufts 100 times
• He shot 67 on #2 as a teenager with 8 clubs…think about that one the next time you lace up your G-Shox and flail away with your 460  cc at a nuclear powered Pro V
• He caddied in the ’51 Ryder Cup at Pinehurst in a four-ball match.  In his group were Ben Hogan and Jimmy Demaret.  According to Wille, Hogan said two things on the way to a sporty little 32-34.  “Have a nice round” and “Have a nice day”  was the sum total.  I wish you were there to hear Willie tell it

He’s had literally thousands of loops over his long life and says that  there were only 10 he wouldn’t want to caddie for again…”and they were all from New York City.”  I think he pulled this one out for a crowd with a lot more y’alls than yous guys, but it was funny just the same.

When he reminds us one reason to take a caddie is “you can ask a golf cart which way a putt breaks all day long and he won’t tell you” it just reminds me of why I  hate the mechanical mule so much…other than to allow the old-timer the chance to still make doubles on the course he loves, carts should be as illegal as grand theft auto…my opinion only.

Eddie “Eddie Mac” McKenzie is a toddler compared  to his friend.  He’s only been reading putts at the Deuce for 20 years.  Before that who knows, but I think in the great tradition of the Super-Looper, he rode his bike to a dark bar looking for a decent buzz and a little  companionship…this may be totally false but after all this is my BLOG and I had to let my fact checker go because of the economy…plus Eddie doesn’t own a computer so he’ll never see it anyway. 

He’s a man of letters.  Over the course of two hours we talked mostly about writers and books.  I took notes…he didn’t.

He knows jazz, wine, food, and literature…but most of all he knows the ball will break in the opposite way that it looks…and you would save more than a few Nassaus if you do as he says.

In the end golf has so many good things going for it.  Two of those I was lucky enough to spend a couple hours with last week in Eddie Mac and Wille McRae…I can only hope I listened more than I talked.