The Best In Golf

Entries categorized as ‘Caddies’

Just Hangin’ Around

February 14, 2009 · 3 Comments

cameroncrazies11Nothing, and I do mean nothing, prepared me for what I witnessed Wednesday night inside the Cameron Arena at Duke University.

I don’t have to tell you the Duke/UNC rivalry is maybe the biggest in sports, college or professional.  I’ve been to Packers-Bears, Notre Dame-USC, Cubs-Cardinals,  and they all looked like a Girl Scout cookie sale next to this madness…but more on that in a minute.

I was on this trip, then off, then on, off, and finally, thankfully on.  I was  third alternate and that might be pushing it.  My stock rose and fell as the days approached but that’s OK…I made the cut in the end.  After all, how many Majors have been won by someone “just hangin’ around?”  And this was a Major.

Now regular followers of  B.I.G. know what a  lucky cuss I am when it comes to playing golf and hanging at good spots…no doubt about that.  And I know it’s luck, not deserved.  But what I am about to describe to you, at The Pinehurst Resort and surroundings,  may go down as the Best 24 Hours In Golf…and I’ll be brief in fear that when you read about this I might lose you forever.

It started with dinner at The Magnolia Inn, a creeky old tavern in the Village of Pinehurst with two great pals…a couple hours on the porch outside the recently ruined, I meant renovated, Ryder Cup Lounge and off to bed.  Then the fun began.

Next morning it was biscuits and gravy followed by golf on course  #4, Tom Fazio’s terrific rewind of a D. Ross underachiever. 

We met at 5:00 and motored north for an hour or so to Durham, NC, home to the Duke Blue Devils, Coach K, about 100 banners hanging from the rafters, and last but not least The Cameron Crazies.  These  are the students and they are all painted blue…and I mean they are ALL painted blue.  They never sit or stop chanting in one very loud voice from before tip off until the end of the game. 

Some of it is a little unseemly, like when they repeat the announcers introduction of a Tarheels player with a “you suck,” but the rest is just good college mayhem.

PA Announcer:  “Welcome 5-11 guard, from Clinton Maryland, number five…Tyyyyyyyy Lawson”

Cameron Crazies:  ”Ty Lawson, you suck!!!”  Guess you don’t really need to hear the rest of the roster.

Our fourth was none other than author Jim Dodson (I won’t call him golf writer because his subjects are much more diverse than that) which was a true treat for me.  I’ve read almost all his books on golf from Final Rounds, to Hogan (best Hogan biography by a lot in my humble opinion), to his latest,  A Son of  The Game…this is a good one that I’ll post more about when I’m finished.  You’re going to want this book either as a Dad, for your Dad, or just if you really like good golf writing.  It comes out just before Father’s Day, trust me.

It’s 80 degrees and 90% humidity in the arena…everyone looks like they’ve had a shower at the end of the night.645dcazuormfcadfezelca6l5p7wcane0l66camfaxkica8bubvkcacsxluzcauwp3fqca970kflcalv3rc0cau1uuescakmu4lsca1gvcrrca5xnxyacatqqg8tca0mf61tca8p5bwacackk7xocaei9fwb1  Krzyzewski on one bench, Roy Williams on the other, not 20 feet from each other…an unholy place…and something I’ll never forget.

Then the trip turned back to golf on B.I.G. personal fave, and home of the Best Par Four to Ruin a Round Early, the #2 course at Pinehurst.  The last time I  was here was at a very high quality road trip to the 2008 US Amateur, watching eventual champion Danny Lee treat the Deuce with the utmost disrespect…birdieing half the holes and showing enough fear to fill a small grape. 

Along for the walk were great friends and customers Jeff Fiorini and Wright Chandler from GolfPride.  We had a match under a sky that North Carolina fans would say proves God’s loyalty to the Heels…just as blue as it could be.

After my good partner and I lost the first two holes to the Grip Boys it looked bad…actually it looked a little like a handicap miscalculation…but we won the third and no one was more than one-up until we lost the match and 10 bucks on 18…money well spent to say the least.

Our caddies were great as usual and included Hall of Famer Eddie Mac, who spends the same amount of time talking about the  latest poetry he’s reading as he does 10-footers for bogey.  He likes to hear what you think the putt will do before he expresses his opinion and even has his own unique way of doing this. 

“What say you knave?” is a typical Eddie Mac question…now I ask you who says knave?

That’s it for now and maybe forever for the reason listed above…I hope this happens to you some day, I really do…now what say you knave?

Categories: Amateurs · Caddies · Courses · Friends · Pinehurst · Travel

Looper Chronicles

January 18, 2009 · 3 Comments

Pete McDaniel, Willie McRae, Eddie MacKenzie

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.

Categories: Caddies · Courses · Pinehurst

The Most Underated Things In Golf- Part IX

November 14, 2008 · Leave a Comment

fall

I hope some day you have the chance to play the Donald Ross gem just refurbished in Charlotte, NC as I did this week.  Charlotte CC, home of the Best Fried Oysters In Golf, is one of the greats…and a place for one of the Most Underrated Things In Golf.

Fall golf is without a doubt one of the true small pleasures in life.  Teeing off at nearly 2:00 allows for a late twilight finish which comes with it’s own special bonus…it’s already cocktail time!

My friend John “Isn’t it Wunnerful?” Corder hosted us for this walk in the park with two superb caddies, Dave and Box Car…the latter got his name when he used to ride the rails to work and one day the train was moving too fast for him to jump off at the construction site where he was working…so he had to ride it to the end and walk back the 30 miles…good Sherpa lore.

 

I remember working at the golf course as a kid in the fall with the smells of burning leaves in the air…stealing a three hole loop before dinner and riding my bike home in the dark.  No way I’d let my kids do that but that’s another story for another day.

 

But the fall is a time for some of the best things in life.  We move too fast, especcially in these times, to really enjoy them.  Football, Thanksgiving, fireplaces, and maybe the best of all…golf. 

Categories: Caddies · Courses · Food · Friends · Underrated

The Most Underrated Things in Golf IV- The Day Trip

February 18, 2008 · Leave a Comment

A couple weeks ago my friend Mark and I decided to take a day trip to our favorite acreage in all of golf. The weather was supposed to be rainy and windy but we decided to take the chance which turned out to be a very good decision.

To review, for something to be considered underrated it must be that which we don’t think much about but would miss greatly if it were to dissapear.

The “day trip” is just such an example.

We met at the bagel place before it opened and scooted down US 17 in the dark. Arriving at Secession GC just before 8, a quick hello to the best staff in golf, and away we went.

Our caddie for the day was Paulie…a guy you wouldn’t want to get into a stare-down with around the poker table for your lunch money.

Paulie is a man of many talents. I take it he has played some 5 card draw in his day…he’s a fine caddy and knows his grass, pun intended. But most of all Paulie is a +2 at talking …unsurpassed at banter, bullshitter par excellence

He did stop talking for about 5 minutes of the 5 hours we spent together, but that was cumulitive…a few seconds at a time. He told us the story of the caddiemaster who won the football pool and bought himself some new teeth with the take and the time he was pulled over in New Mexico with a few thousand bucks in his Wranglers…couldn’t understand why the authorities thought it a bit suspicious. It was all OK because Mark and I took turns listenting or acting like we were.

Paulie had hit the “Looper Lottery” that day. Thirty-six holes, twenty-seven of them before 12:00, and two bags that weigh slightly less than the average pouch of Callaways he hauls over the course of a day…combined.

His fellow sherpas let him know how they felt about his good fortune by shooting him the middle finger wave from a distance on more than one occasion.

The weather was a little rough at first but the last nine we played was perfect. We arrived back at the now open bagel place well before supper…so 36 holes at a course two hours away, a very nice caesar with grilled chicken (blackened), two cold Sam Adams, all within 10 hours.

Ah, give me the day trip any time.

Categories: Caddies · Friends · Underrated

A Slightly Different Take On The Western Open

July 19, 2006 · 2 Comments

Some good friends, and passionate lovers of golf, have e-mailed recently to talk about the demise of The Western Open. First, it won’t say Western anymore…unthinkable? It won’t be in Chicago every year…even worse!

For the record here’s a partial list of Western champions and competitors since 1899:

Western Open (since 1899)
Chick Evans (pictured), Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Nick Price,Tiger Woods.

Western Amateur (since 1899)
Chick Evans, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Crenshaw, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, Curtis Strange, Hal Sutton, Lanny Wadkins, Tom Weiskopf, Scott Verplank.

Western Junior (since 1914)
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Fred Couples, Scott Hoch, Tom Lehman, Craig Stadler, Corey Pavin, Bobby Clampett

But of course the reason for being at The Western Golf Association is not the above…it is the 8,000 alumni who have attended one of 14 colleges on an Evans Scholarship. These folks, young, old, and dead are referred to simply as Evans Scholars. I personally have contributed to the Evans for many years…can’t really remember how many. It comes every winter and Audrey (wife and payer of all bills) cuts the check as if it were the gas bill…no need to ask

My Evans bagtag has my name and my club…their bagtag says Evans Scholar Alumni…can’t buy that…or can you?

You can’t buy an alumni bagtag for yourself but you can for a kid that at 8 years old shows up at a club (usually in Chicago, but not always) and goes to his first caddy training day. He steps in lines, hasn’t a clue when the flag should be in or out, and generally wanders around like exactly what he is…a rookie of the first degree.

Fast forward 8 or 9 years and what you’ll find is a polished, well-trained, and polite (at least while they are working) young person who is headed for great things as an Evan’s Scholar. At Knollwood Club in Lake Forest, the leafiest suburb of them all, where I hung out about 18 hours a day from 1983 to 1986, I got to know and see these great kids of all ages.

There was one who was 9…can’t remember his name…Two shots a hole was his official pre-GHIN handicap and we’d play 3 hole matches for hot dogs (once we were out of sight of caddiemaster, Harry Shank, of course)…good thing they were cheap too, as I remember my record was 1-10-2 that summer.

Another was 17…he was headed to college on the Evans, Northwestern I think. He used to sit in the caddy yard in between loops and read Tolstoy (who was a 5.8 at the Moscow muni I hear).

“OK, that’s somewhat impressive for a member of the acne set” you say…but he was reading it in Russian. That knocks my freakin’ socks off, I’ll tell you that!

So The Western Open is history…and what history it has…the very fact it’s called “Western” is tribute enough…believe it or not in 1899 Chicago was the Northwest…seems almost cute now, but it really was.

So the deal with Beamer is a Bummer. The LA and Phoenix Opens, among others, have suffered a similar indignity.

But if more kids can go to college on an Evan’s Scholarship because they park a few X5s out front, then I’m all for it…

Want to do something great for golf?

Donate to the Evan’s Scholarship Foundation at www.evansscholarsfoundation.com/

There’s a kid at Beverly, Butler National, or Knollwood who will go to college because of it…and you’ll get a swell umbrella!

By the way, one of the coolest (touching) things you’ll ever see in golf, across any club in Chicago, is the golfer carrying the bag for his brand new looper the last few holes. There the caddy will be, walking along sunburned and exhausted…no worries, everyone knows he’ll make the full round soon enough.

Oh and just FYI, you can’t take the Northwestern (train) to Northwestern (University) , you’ll have to take the EL…take my advice, get off and have an I-Beef with both, m’friend…it’s the Best In Golf.

Categories: Caddies · PGA Tour