I never caddied as a kid, earning money instead by mowing lawns, painting houses and hot-walking polo ponies in the summers of my youth.
But that void in my working life has not prevented me from appreciating how much caddying can teach important life lessons to young people. Such as the value of hard work, being punctual and learning when and when not to speak.
Another is giving back, and I was recently reminded of how caddying also informs individuals as to the importance of that concept and how enriching a life grounded in paying it forward can be.
As America’s guest, I have had the good fortune of teeing it up at some very special places. And among my favorites is The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. I love its old-line New England aura and a history that goes back to the very beginnings of the game in the New World. Then, there is the golf, which is so strong that the USGA has staged 17 championships at the club since its founding in 1882, including four U.S. Opens.
I also like that TCC has a top-notch caddie program. And for the majority of the 20-odd rounds I have enjoyed there over the years, I was lucky to have one superlative looper on my bag, a local lad named Sean Fleming, who most everybody called Sonny.
On the course, Sean demonstrated a quick wit and the gift of gab as well as an ability to read greens that could be as complex as a James Joyce novel. He could also mete out abuse with the best of them. And I remember one time when he had a bit of a coughing attack as one of his players struggled to extricate his golf ball from a bunker.
“You OK, Sonny?” the man asked after finally escaping the sand.
“I’m fine,” he replied. “I’m just allergic to bad golf.”
Sean started caddying at Brookline as a teenager and was a fixture for 41 years. But he passed away in the fall of 2016, just 58 years old.
One of Sean’s greatest talents was mentoring the young caddies. He was both tough and kind as he did so, offering advice and praise as he also gave them the occasional needle.
Even as they endured his barbs, the young loopers at TCC came to love and appreciate Sonny. And a couple of weeks ago, I saw firsthand evidence of that when two former caddies spoke at a club reception about an annual award they had established in Sean’s name that will go to a TCC caddie who is already receiving a Francis Ouimet Scholarship and “exemplifies the best of Sonny.”
“Sonny gave so much to us,” said Chris Hughes, who with his triplet brother Dan started looping at Brookline when they were 14 years old and later graduated from Loyola University Maryland with a degree in business administration, thanks largely to monies from the Ouimet organization (which, of course, is named after the Brookline native who shockingly won the 1913 U.S. Open at The Country Club). “So, we felt it was important to give something back to him.”
Each of the now 28-year-old brothers seeded the scholarship with a $1,000 contribution, and they are close to reaching their goal of a total endowment of $50,000, with donations also coming from TCC members, caddies, club employees and friends.
“Sonny was the king of the caddie yard, and I’d like to think that he is looking down and smiling while at the same time razzing us for making such a fuss about him,” said Dan.
But you can be sure that as much as anything else, Sean would be proud of his protégés, whom he often greeted as “Pete and Repeat” whenever they walked into the caddie hut, and the brilliant way that they are paying it forward.
Here endth the lesson.
John Steinbreder
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