Just as the professionals become more precise by the day, so the same applies to their caddies. Today, a caddie is expected to be constantly at the ready to answer his master’s call. And to such an extent that if, say, he is busy chatting to someone else while waiting for the boss to appear, he will be casting anxious glances in every direction to check that he is not about to miss his arrival.
Small wonder the modern caddies are so intent on getting things right in a line of business where Scottie Scheffler’s bagman, Ted Scott, had won approximately $5.2 million by the start of September as against his master’s $62 million, according to calculations by NBC Sports and Golf Digest. At a less lofty level, Bryan Kopsick, who caddies for Ben Silverman, a 36-year-old Canadian ranked 109th in the FedEx Cup, revealed on X earlier this month that he had year-to-date earnings of $149,000 as against Silverman’s $1,262,599.
Back in the 1960s, the now 90-year-old Neil Coles, who was one of a mere handful of professionals to make a living out of the game in his era, had a caddie by the name of Arthur Maidment, better known as "Chingy," a one-handicap-man. Chingy would get £10 a day (about £290, or $365, in today’s money) along with 10 percent of Coles’ prize money.
Back then, choosing a new caddie could be a bit of a hit-and-miss exercise. When Chingy became too old to carry on, Coles linked up with a chap who knew a thing or two about golf but was otherwise something of a disaster. “A bit of a villain,” is how Coles describes him.
Before picking up Coles’ bag, Caddie X had been working at a driving range where the owners put him in charge of banking the daily takings – takings which did not always go much further than the villain’s own pocket. For another doubtful practice, Caddie X would book into a good hotel when he was caddying away from home and leave at the crack of dawn when there was no one around to hand him a bill.
There came a day when the secretary at Sunningdale rang Coles to say that an old caddie of his had answered an advert to take charge of the men’s locker rooms at the club.
“Don’t even think about taking him on,” cautioned Coles, before explaining the hazards that might lie ahead.
Yet when Coles returned to Sunningdale for the next year’s Sunningdale Foursomes, the villain was waiting for him in the locker room. The man wanted to thank Coles for having supplied what must have been an excellent reference.
Coles marched into the secretary’s office. “So, you employed him,” he said, disbelievingly.
“Yes,” said the secretary.
“What on earth made you do that?” persisted Coles.
“I told him that I knew everything there was to know about him and that if anything went missing, I wouldn’t have a problem in knowing where to find it.”
Lewine Mair
E-MAIL LEWINE
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