The American amateur golf community lost one of its own when John Doherty, a noted caddie affectionately known to all as “JD,” died on Jan. 10. Doherty, a longtime resident of the New Jersey shore, was 53 and had battled diabetes for many years.
To call JD a caddie was to miss the bigger picture. Yes, he was a looper, often on the bag for some of the brightest lights in the amateur game for the past three decades. But more than that, JD loved amateur golf as much as, and sometimes more than, those for whom he carried the bag.
JD started caddying at age 13 at Navesink Country Club in Red Bank, New Jersey. Although he worked on Wall Street for a time in his early adulthood, caddying became his full-time occupation and his love.
He cut his teeth on the elite amateur circuit caddying for the late Jeff Thomas, a legendary New Jersey amateur in the 1980s and early ’90s. JD’s reputation spread, and soon he was in demand among elite players around the country.
“JD would have caddied on a broken leg. He touched so many people in the amateur game.”
Gene Elliott
His amateur circuit pals remember him as a surly, salty Jersey guy with a huge heart and no ego. In his time, JD caddied for players in more than 60 USGA Championships and qualifiers.
“He loved the amateur game,” recalled 2021 U.S. Senior Amateur champion Gene Elliott. “He could recite the winners of U.S. Amateur championships going back over decades. He knew obscure records and facts. It was just his thing.”
JD caddied for Elliott frequently, beginning with the 2006 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. After Elliott qualified for match play at Forest Highlands Golf Club in Arizona, his college caddie had to leave to go back to school. Seeking a replacement, Elliott sought out the caddiemaster at a moment that JD was within earshot. “Gene Elliott, I am your man,” JD declared. A wonderful friendship was born as well as an on-course relationship that took them to more than a dozen USGA championships together.
“JD would have caddied on a broken leg,” Elliott observed. “He touched so many people in the amateur game.”
The pinnacle of JD’s looping career came in 2016, when he landed on the bag of Stewart Hagestad. “He was such a great foxhole friend,” Hagestad recalled last week. The pair found each other as Hagestad was building a name for himself in Met Golf Association circles in New York.
“He knew the venues, knew the pin placements, and he had spent a lot of time around better players,” Hagestad said. “I thought he could help me, and we bonded.”
In a sign of things to come, Hagestad and JD teamed to great effect at the Met Amateur, one of the most important local amateur championships in the country that typically boasts a loaded field of players from New York, Connecticut and northern New Jersey. With JD on the bag, Hagestad scorched Connecticut’s Country Club of Fairfield, posting qualifying rounds of 61-64, 15-under par and low medal score by 10 shots. The duo then survived four extremely close matches, including a quarterfinal match that went 19 holes. Hagestad prevailed in the final, going 38 holes to defeat Ethan Ng.
A month later, it was on to the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. The Mid- Amateur was played at Stonewall in Pennsylvania, a course that JD knew well. Hagestad shocked then-reigning U.S. Mid-Am champion Scott Harvey in a thrilling 37-hole final match, earning a berth in the 2017 Masters as one of the spoils of victory.
Rather than follow common wisdom and hire a local Augusta National caddie, Hagestad decided to keep JD on the bag. In the months leading up to the tournament, JD traveled with Hagestad to Augusta for practice rounds. And at the tournament, he caddied for Hagestad in practice rounds accompanied by Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott and Ben Crenshaw. Carl Jackson, Crenshaw’s veteran caddie at the Masters, took JD under his wing and gave him advice.
Hagestad subsequently became the first mid-amateur to make the cut at the Masters, finishing 36th and earning low-amateur honors. He credited JD as being “invaluable” in that effort.
“We felt like it was us against the world,” Hagestad recounted. “We had such a great rapport that week.”
Mike Stamberger, a New Jersey amateur standout who knew JD for more than 30 years, said nobody loved golf more than his friend. Hagestad called JD a legend who probably didn’t know how much he was loved in the amateur community.
One thing’s for sure: The amateur game has lost a devoted friend.
E-MAIL JIM
Top: John Doherty during the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.
CHRIS KEANE, USGA