Proper tip for a caddie

[sandycove]

[ QUOTE ]
The two courses I have caddied at (Augusta National and Sage Valley) both have "change-out" bags to deal with this problem; I think if the players bag weighs more than ~30 lbs the caddy takes the clubs out of the heavier bag and places them into a light carry bag. I thought that this was pretty standard.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. Never heard of this. Great idea.

2. Pet peeve: One or two guys in a foursome have a caddy. The others walk, carry their own sticks or pull a trolley. Caddy still gives advice, chats, hunts for balls, pulls the pin. Do the other lads think to tip for these services at the end of the round? Never. So now, I simply ask them to.

I had a loop for a senior tour player a few years back for a pro-am. Did the amateurs toke me for my services? Hardly. (The pro wasn't too generous, either. My compensation was to be some unspecified percentage of the purse, if any.) In fairness, it was a writing assignment, although I was a fully qualified looper with significant course knowledge.

3. My first loop was in 1956. Age 12. Had to wait all day in the caddy shack from dawn to dusk for a week doing my initiation penance. Finally got a little old man's late in the day little old bag, a single, in a fivesome. It was the third time out that day for the other two senior double loopers. One leather-tough old caddie in the group just had one arm, his left (and he'd been right-handed). He could handle two bags, extra balls, the pin, and roll a cigarette, all at what seemed like the same time. He'd noodle in the muck of the course pond at sundown for lost balls and could beat most two-armed players at the club golfing his ball.

So, my man hits one in the tall right rough on the long second hole and my worst nightmare looms -- a lost ball! And I am marking this short hitter's ball flight like a hawk. I go straight for the site, drop the bag, and start a furious hunt. Two caddies and five players join me. Minutes go by. I am frantic. Then the one-armed man has a thought, walks over to my man's bag. lifts it up, and there's the ball... the mortification of a lifetime.

Your man might have tipped me a quarter after the round, out of mercy and out of his pocket. The caddie master would have stolen more than that from my fee; we had no access to the tickets members signed. He had a piece of all the action -- candy bars, sodas, used balls, card games, and made a little book for the members, too.