Some Humorous and Real Mistakes in 'Tour Caddy Past'

There have been many instances of Caddy Screw Ups in Caddy Past.   (These are just a few of many over the years, and we'll continue to add to this story.)  On the European PGA Tour there was a caddy in the 1980’s who early in his caddy career earned the nickname "Two Shots" for a couple of early infractions of the Rules of Golf.

His was fore caddying a tee shot on a blind hole. After the tee shots were hit, his player appeared over the hill walking towards his tee shot, which he can see is just a couple yards from being in really deep rough. As he approaches his caddy and when in ear shot the player says to him, "Gee, that was lucky, eh?" The caddy replied, "It sure was, if it hadn’t hit the bag it would have been in that thick grass over there!"

Then again within a period of a couple more weeks the same caddy is walking down a fairway with bag in tote, and discovers that he’s dropped a head cover about 100 yards behind him. A friend of his is walking along with his group outside the ropes watching the days play. He asks his friend to "carry the bag up to his player and ball while he runs back to pick up the head cover. His friend obliges and carries the bag part way to his player’s ball. Meanwhile the player sees the transfer of the bag back to his original caddy, now back with the dropped head cover, and sure enough, two shots again, -you can only have one caddy –his caddy has had an assist by another well meaning friend, but it counts as two caddies!  Hence earning the nickname "Two Shots’ after that.

On the U.S. PGA Tour, a veteran tour caddy who has worked for a lot of top players was caddying for Ray Floyd at the Tournament Players Championship. On the 11^th hole there’s a place where the caddies cut across to the fairway after handing the player his driver. It’s a par five hole and the caddy wants to check a yardage for a number into the green to lay up on the par five hole. He lays Floyds' bag up against and behind a big tree so that should an errant shot come  it can't hit his players golf bag, and incur a penalty. As he was walking back from checking the sprinkler head Ray Floyd is on the tee in the process of hitting his tee shot. The Caddy sees that a ‘well meaning’ Marshall has taken the bag from behind the tree and laid it down in the landing area in the rough with the open club head part of the bag facing the tee. Floyds’ tee shot starts right toward his bag, and now the caddy is running to try to beat the ensuing ball from hitting the now prostrate bag, but of course it hits it and rolls right up and into it!

 Upon arriving on the scene and seeing the bag still on the ground Floyd demands of the caddy "Where’s my ball?!"  I’m sure it wasn’t easy for this veteran caddy to have to explain this one.  Regardless of the outside influence, it’s still two shots for hitting his own equipment, and there’s no acceptable explanation to your pro for having to check sprinkler heads once the tournament is on!

Domingo Hospital was playing in a tournament in Europe in the rain. He had putted up to the hole, and looked to be one to mark and putt out again, at least his caddy thought so. So the caddy held the umbrella over the player as he walked to the ball, and while still holding the umbrella over him, his caddy thinking that he was going to mark the ball continues to hold the umbrella over him, but instead Hospital hits the ball into the hole, incurring a two shot penalty! The caddy thereafter was nicknamed "Mary Poppins!"

A guy is caddying for Leonard Thompson in the 1980’s on the U.S. Tour, and while Leonard is putting the caddy is tending the pin for him. As the ball approaches the hole, the caddy pulls out the pin and begins to move, and so doing dislodges a tee peg from behind his ear which falls into the line of the incoming ball, and the ball hits the tee peg, incurring a penalty!

More recently, in 1999, his caddy at about the 5th hole informed Ignacio Garrido at the Forest of Arden tournament on the European PGA Tour, in one of the early rounds, that they mistakenly had 15 clubs in the bag. Worse yet, the 15^th club was the caddies who had been surreptitiously hitting shots with it earlier on the practice range that day, a caddy no, no as well! Garrido remained cool after accepting a 4 shot penalty and did not get down on his man for the dumb error. On Sunday, Garrido finished second to Colin Montgomery by two shots!

Also, more recently, on the European Tour, this year at the Forest of Arden, Raymond Russell, on the 12th hole tossed his ball to his caddy quickly after marking it on the green.  The caddy didn't know it was coming nor did he have enough time to react and the ball got past him and into the greenside lake.  After the allotted time, the caddy had pulled out nine golf balls, none of them his players, and since the rule is that you must complete the hole with the same ball with which you started, incurred a two shot penalty!  Russell 's post tournament comments were that the caddy should have caught the ball!

And finally, Lorne Duncan was caddying for Jesper Parnevik in a tournament in the U.S. Duncan and Parnevik had made the cut after Fridays round, and Jesper was hitting balls on the driving range with Duncan alongside.  A tournament official happened on the scene and asked Jesper if anything untoward happened on a particular green, and specifically if he had brushed away any loose impediments out of his line on the putting green of the hole in question.  Jesper said something to the effect that he didn't really recall whether he did or not.  Then the official turned to Duncan, asking him if he had seen such a thing.  Duncan thought for a while, and like Honest Abe, recalled to the tournament official that his man had in fact inadvertently brushed the line with his golf glove.  Parnevik was assessed a two stroke penalty, and automatically disqualified for signing his card for an incorrect score.  Afterwards, the official left the scene, Parnevik turned to Duncan and told him, "You're Fired!" (Most likely a last straw in a caddy/player relationship that was already going bad!)

                                                                                                 Bob

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