Willie McRae, a caddie who spent greater than seven a long time on the Pinehurst Resort & Nation Membership, the host of this week’s U.S. Open, was a beloved determine who did his utmost to assist his gamers.
“My dad would at all times inform the story that his job trusted what sort of tip he acquired,” stated Paul McRae, his son who’s a golf teacher on the Pinehurst Golf Academy. (His father died in 2018 at 85.) “He’d often come house with holes in his pocket so he may drop a ball for a golfer. These different guys would say, ‘Man, you certain play good when Willie is right here, however you don’t when Willie isn’t round.’ He knew tips on how to make gamers really feel good.”
Pinehurst is a cradle of American golf. Donald Ross, probably the most prolific golf course architects, lived within the city and examined out concepts about course design on the membership. However it additionally has an underappreciated position in American caddying.
What was as soon as a occupation that was appeared down upon, caddying has gained respect over time. It’s now an integral a part of the expertise at golf resorts all over the world. In any case, there is no such thing as a one else who spends 5 or 6 hours with visitors as guides, psychologists and storytellers.
“Over the past U.S. Open, Justin Rose got here in early and took my dad out on No. 2 so he may learn the greens for him,” McRae stated. No. 2 is the championship course. “My dad caddied for Ben Hogan. Hogan would ask him, ‘The place ought to I intention?’ My dad would say, ‘Purpose at that tree.’ Hogan would say, ‘Which a part of the tree?’”
Two years after the primary Open at Pinehurst in 1999 — that is the resort’s fourth — Pinehurst acknowledged a few of its most well-known caddies with a corridor of fame. Willie McRae, Fletcher Gaines, Robert Robinson, Jimmy Steed, Teddy Marley, Robert Stafford, Hilton Rodgers, John T. Daniel and Jeff Ferguson had been in that firstclass of inductees in 2001.
Along with being the course designer, Ross was additionally the resort’s caddie grasp and recruited males from the neighborhood.
“The caddie recreation at Pinehurst is prospering for a lot of causes, amongst them the information that caddies are part of the Pinehurst custom, the No. 2 course is imminently walkable, and the curious design of the greens makes their native information price a number of strokes a spherical,” wrote Lee Tempo, in his 2012 ebook “The Golden Age of Pinehurst.”
Nonetheless, the Pinehurst caddies are much less well-known than their counterparts at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership in Georgia. Augusta required golf professionals to take a membership caddy for the Masters Match till 1982, and that rule made golf stars out of males like Carl Jackson, who caddied for Ben Crenshaw for many years and was with him for each of his Masters victories.
“The Augusta caddies developed this area of interest as an excellent caddie pool from the Masters,” stated Ward Clayton, the creator of “The Legendary Caddies of Augusta Nationwide.” “Augusta is well-known for its mysterious greens. However Pinehurst has an analogous sense with these inverted-saucer greens that Donald Ross constructed. Gamers are slightly bit flummoxed by these greens. A caddie was like having a coach in these rounds.”
This week, few gamers will present up with out their common caddie on the bag. However for any who do, the go-to man is Thomas Trinchitella, who caddied for Tiger Woods throughout follow rounds earlier than the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst and Rory McIlroy earlier than the 2014 one. He’s a bridge between the previous and current of Pinehurst caddie historical past.
“I acquired to caddie slightly bit with Willie McRae towards the tip of his profession,” Trinchitella stated. “Listening to these guys travel within the caddie room about who’s the perfect inexperienced reader, who may play this gap higher, it was comical. They had been the veteran guys. Individuals simply liked them.”
One crucial factor has modified over the a long time: the cash. McRae completed caddying and went to work the evening shift, his son stated. The successful caddie on the U.S. Open will earn 10 % of the $3.6 million first-place prize.