Loopers: The Caddie's Long Walk (2019) - full transcript

Caddying is more than
just dragging a bag around

and often determines the difference
between a good game and a bad one.

Most of us overlook the fact that
good golf is a sort of partnership

between the player
and the caddie.

♪♪♪

Caddying used to be the guy who
worked in the barn or worked in the kitchen.

Carried the bag,
that's all he did.

Back in the day,
they'd form a relationship with the person.

And you were a team and
you took great pride in it.

It's not the easiest thing in the
world to do but we do it because we love it.

You need that help.



I think a player needs
that help, tremendously.

The greatest golfers? The
greatest of golf moments? Look again.

A caddie standing right there.

They don't just whisper
advice from the shadows,

they are the secret,
integral part of the game.

It's finally time for the story
of the golf caddie to be told.

I get up every morning
and take my little dog for a walk.

And then I'd return, have my couple of cups
of coffee, some toast and then I go to work.

Lovely. Let's go.

My grandfather was, he was the
Celt pro here back in the 40's, 50's.

Then my father started
caddying here.

About maybe that time then
I started caddying in 1975

and my son started
caddying in the 90's.

So, my son is the fourth
generation of my family.



My parents are
buried right there.

So, I always bless myself
every morning passing them

and this is where I'm going
to finish up in my years.

In here with all my
family, ancestors.

I just go down now and see what the bookings
are and I'm pretty high up in the list.

So, I expect to be one of the
first caddies out this morning.

I love this place.

You meet different people
every day from all over the world.

It's fun.

To acquire a local
caddie at a foreign golf course

is to have an ally in a battle against the
elements, the golf course, and life itself.

Give it a good 90-yard shot.

- You can almost hit that pole.
- Yeah.

There is an old, familiar, somehow
disparaging saying in golf that goes:

There are only
three rules for caddies:

Show up, keep up, and shut up.

Perfect.

If the guy wants me to
turn up and just shut up

and all he wants is information
that's what he's going to get.

And if he wants to then talk about
Scotland and stories of the caddies,

he'll get that as well.

Eh, will you go for a few
beers tonight, huh, Bob?

Well, I might try that.

It's just that I'm not just his caddie,
I'm also a very good friend of his...

Of all of them, you know.

It's really important,
you spend a lot of time with that person.

And you want that. You don't
want to be like people who'd say,

"Oh, carry clubs and shut up." You know,
that's... that's not what you want.

♪♪♪

People share so much information
with us and tell us all about their life.

Maybe be like a hairdresser or you
know a massage therapist or something.

People think, you know,
you guys must be talking about shots

and how you hit them and...

No. No. You,

you would have a migraine
that would be uncontrollable

by the end of the round if you tried to stay
that focused for five hours on the golf course.

It would be all... it
would be impossible to do.

So, you talk about news, sports, girls,
movies, we talk about anything and everything.

This is my printing press.

It's a bit out of action
just now as a store,

but I print my own
stuff on history of golf.

People ask when was the game of
golf first played and nobody knows.

Of course, there has been
historically... very at times, bad-tempered

discussion and argument between Europe
and Scotland about who invented golf.

The first record of golf is in
1474, when the king banned golf.

Oh, well that sucks.

What he wanted was the
citizens to practice archery.

Tensions with England
were rising.

He needed soldiers and infantry
with skills in archery to beat the English.

The greatest myth about caddies is
that it has come from Mary Queen of Scots.

I read it in every
golf history book.

She was the first lady golfer.

She was great at the game.

She transformed
the game in Scotland.

She's played every course
in Scotland, you know.

There's lots and lots more
outlandish stories about her,

but the primary one you will hear
is that she came over from France,

and brought over her
cadet, you know, her caddie.

Unfortunately, it's a myth.

There is no record of Her
Majesty posting any official scores.

In fact, the only historical mention
of Mary's golf game is a bizarre one.

In 1567 Mary's house
was blown up,

and her husband, Lord Darnley,
was found murdered in the yard.

Oh, well.

Mary's enemies,
in a plot to force her off the throne,

accused her of playing golf just
days after her husband's death.

If true, certainly a testament to
the lady's focus and competitive fire.

What they said was that she
was clearly so relaxed and not in mourning

and, obviously, complicit in the murder of
her husband that she was off playing golf.

And it was used as part of the
reasons to have her executed.

Before we do this...

By the 1700s, the word
caddie was used for porters.

And they would carry the bags
of strangers, find a hotel,

and, in particular, would get
them to where there was eating,

drinking, and womanizing
to be obtained.

The golfers then began using them not just
for general pottering and delivering duties,

but also for looking
for their golf balls.

One of many Scottish
golf hazards is its tall thick grass.

Caddies first became integral to the game
by knowing where to find a golfer's balls.

They used to use what are called feathery golf
balls and these balls were very expensive.

Found it!

But the caddies were
an unruly bunch, unkempt,

frequently drunk, more curse words
than any other words in a sentence.

They were the lower classes.

Tom Morris born in the poorest
part of St. Andrews was a caddie

who became the greatest
golfer of his era,

but his circle of friends,
his environment, everything is caddies.

You know that's his
class, that's his people.

So, in 1864, Tom Morris was
pretty in charge of the caddies.

It was a code of conduct.

You had to be over
eleven years old.

You also had to go to
Sunday school, no drinking.

So, you can see
Tom Morris's influence.

So, from 1890 onwards, there was actually an
appointed person to look after the caddies

and we have to this day,
we got a caddie master.

♪♪♪

Thirtieth of this month
is the opening day.

So, I'm hoping I'm going to see
some of you guys here at 9 o'clock,

opening day, ready to caddie.

The role of caddie master's been
going on for more than 160 years.

You can find a shining example
when you go to Cleveland, Ohio.

Canterbury Golf Club has hosted
the rotating five major championships

in professional golf, one
of only two clubs to do so.

And if you go there, and go to
the bag-room, go to the range,

go to the putting green, there
you're going to find Mike Kiely.

For more than a half century, he's been
there as a great example of a caddie master.

I started carrying golf bags
when I was ten years old

and before I was ten my dad had me hitting
golf balls when I was six or eight years old.

My family is a third generation.

Started out with my two brothers
and two brothers-in-law's,

years later my kids, and now
their kids are working here.

I estimated about four
thousand caddies

they've gone through the caddie
program at Canterbury.

I don't care if you're teaching a kid to
caddie or teaching them how to play golf

just being yourself, being honest,
being polite and courteous.

The caddie only takes care of
himself if you have those qualities.

I started caddying here
when I was in seventh grade

and I caddied at a couple
of places around town

and never really
kind of found my way.

And my dad was you know,
very much aware of Mike Kiely

and the program
that he had built here.

My goal is to always work in the bag-room
because I wanted to be Mike's right-hand man.

I spent more time with Mike in the
summertime than I did with my own folks.

Mike was definitely
a father figure.

My first impression of
Mike Kiely was "Is this guy crazy?"

But my grandpa actually died that
year and he was best friends with him.

They went to the same parish.

And through the whole
summer we just became

almost like family.

It's not easy. There's a learning
process that's involved with it.

Everybody says it comes
around full swing in the end.

It's one big loop,
is the big adage.

When I find a kid that wants to work
and wants to caddie, I'll keep that kid busy.

Because at Canterbury most
of the people want to walk

because the game of
golf is meant to walk.

A links golf course is a golf
course built on dunes of sand.

If you're going to play a links
golf course you must hire a caddie.

I guarantee you,
you put Americans out here without a caddie

and they put the ball in
the rough down the right.

You cannot trust your eye on a links
golf course if you haven't been used to it.

That's ten-thousand-year-old
sand, you know, compacted.

It's okay there,
mate. It's okay.

So, it's quite an art
to that as you can imagine.

My home course is actually a link
style course that I play back in Minnesota

and it's nothing like this.

I mean the vegetation
tries to replicate this, but

once you're in the rough
here, you're in the rough.

Links golf requires an
unbelievable imagination

and it requires an unbelievable
amount of knowledge from the caddie

as far as where
the wind's going,

how far is the ball going to run down, when
what clubbers are going to be into the wind.

A good caddie assesses
his players' swing in the first few holes,

in order to suggest or pull the
correct club for each situation.

I am a member here, so I know
the course pretty well. Yeah.

The modern caddie
must be ready to offer yardage,

the exact distance between
wherever the ball lays

and the next target of the hole,
most often the flagstick.

Tee off on the left side.

- And maybe aim for like the left side of the bunker.
- Okay.

- Oh it's going to be nice.
- Nice shot.

That's a golf shot.

Our lad or lassie
must be able to read greens.

That is know how fast the ball
will roll on the putting surface

and how to compensate
for the slopes.

But it's only advice and we
all know about taking advice.

The golfer is still the one
who must make the shot.

You see the caddie should
be more than just a psychologist,

a father, a mother figure,
you know. You got to do the whole thing.

He's got to do a proper job here

and they don't last long if
they don't. I'll tell you that.

I really had not
liked links golf at all.

In fact, I hated links golf.

I played American style. I
played the ball way up in the air.

I expected the ball to stop
pretty close to where it landed.

Links golf, it doesn't do that.

My very first shot in links golf, I hit
it right down in the middle a fairway,

it ended up in a pot bunker seventy-five
yards off the center of fairway area.

I didn't like that.

Even at the highest
level of professional tour-golf,

hiring a local caddie has
yielded indisputable results.

I had a caddie
by the name of Alfie Fyles.

He was a character, he was from Southport,
near Birkdale. That's where he grew up.

He loved to smoke unfiltered
cigarettes and drink Famous Grouse.

But I hope it kicks left hard.

American tour-golfer Tom Watson
with the guidance of native caddie Alfie Fyles

racked up five British Open
wins in just nine years.

You form a relationship with the person and
you were a team and you took great pride in it.

On this side of the hazard,
known as the Atlantic Ocean,

plenty of attempts have been
made to replicate links courses.

Maybe nothing comes
closer than Bandon Dunes.

If you look at any list of you know the best
courses in the world they're almost all on sand

most of them on the ocean and
this site in Bandon matched both.

I think a lot of people thought he was crazy
when he said he was going to build you know

a world-class golf resort,
here in Bandon, Oregon.

When people in the town heard that there
was a golf course being put in out here,

people were like it's not gonna do
well because it's in the middle of nowhere

tons of sand dunes,
course, you name it.

Well, a lot of people in town didn't
realize that that's what links golf is.

All the experts
said, "You are crazy.

You're going to have
carts of course."

So they said, "If you make it walking only,
Americans won't play unless they're carts."

And how are we going to get caddies to go to
Bandon, Oregon? Where are they going to live?

Where are they going
to come from?

You know it's like that
movie Field of Dreams.

If you build it, they will come
and that's what people are doing.

Beauty.

Walking is really, really,
really, part of a golf game.

If I had the choice of a cart or a caddie,
I will take a caddie.

Being on dunes,
being on links course,

we definitely have to play
a lot more ground game shots

and the wind is also
a big factor out here.

Most guys that come out here aren't used
to playing in 30-mile-an-hour-plus winds.

So, us being out here every day,

we can kind of know what
type of shots to play for the guys.

If you break it down, the caddie
spends the most time with the guests.

Guest comes to play 36 holes for three days
and they spend all that time with their caddie,

who quickly becomes their best
friend for the moment.

In particular, I want them to be
the happiest people at the resort,

other than maybe their guest. And
that's sort of my pro-caddie philosophy.

An 18-hole round is...
Here we call it a loop.

So, we call ourselves "loopers.'"

European
caddies are the best.

They would rather get off
a great line than get their tip.

You know what I mean? If
it's like, "Should I say this,

or should I go ahead
and get a good tip?"

And they'll go,
"I'm saying this."

We were with this guy.
He had a terrible temper.

And he 3-putted one of
those big greens out there

and it had been his like
fifth or sixth three-putts.

And he goes, "You know what?
I'd rather go back to my room

and find my wife with another guy
than three put another green out here."

And one of the Scottish caddies
goes, "What's your room number?"

I think that a lot of people when
they go to Scotland and Ireland,

they love the fact that the
caddie was drunk, you know.

They'll always talk about how
the caddie was gruff and maybe rude,

not to say that the Scottish
guys aren't professional

because I am Scottish and I
would say I'm professional.

Let me tell
you something,

there's two things that a
caddie doesn't care about.

Breasts on a man
and what you shoot.

He just wants you to have fun and
enjoy golf and maybe you learn something.

By the 1890s golf
was expanding in America

and club making had become
a legitimate career.

Scottish club makers also doubled as
caddies and were coveted by Americans

for their skills
and ties to golf history.

The Carnoustie 300 refers
to a group of club makers,

caddies, greens keepers, golf
teachers, and course designers

who migrated from Carnoustie,
Scotland, to the United States.

The United States
was the land of opportunity

and imagine the joy of going out somewhere
in California to work, for example,

compared with a February
in Carnoustie.

There's just no
competition here,

a nice job, well paid, and
a lovely climate to work in

and when they got out here they were
equipped more than us here, being as it were.

Scottish caddies may
have been highly regarded in the U.S.

but at home under the old
British class system,

they were still considered
at the bottom of society.

I know, for example, certain
people that are caddying here just now,

and I remember their
mums and dads

and maybe actually to this day, a bit
disappointed that their son is caddying.

The Royal and Ancient Golf lub was founded
in 1754 and the inks which overlook the sea

are amongst the finest in the world but you
golfers won't deny that the proof is in the putty.

St. Andrews has held
twenty-nine Open Championships

more than any other golf course.

So it's been in the forefront
of championship golf

through the last century
and a half almost.

So, any golfer that has any sense
of golf as a worldwide phenomenon

associates it with St. Andrews
first and foremost in the old course.

Everything
in this town is for golf,

you know whether it's hotels,
restaurants, everything.

If you visited here twenty years
ago or a hundred years ago,

the course really hasn't
changed very much.

So, you're playing the same
course Arnold Palmer played,

that Seve Ballesteros played, that James
Braid played, that Bobby Jones played.

That's the joy of it.

I find and I always hit the ball better
if my backswing is very leisurely.

Born in Atlanta in 1902, as a
young boy Bobby Jones battled health issues

and golf was prescribed
to strengthen him.

Jones trained at Atlanta
Athletic Club with Stewart Maiden,

formerly of Carnoustie, Scotland
and one of the famed Carnoustie 300.

Beginning in 1923, Jones dominated
top-level amateur competition.

And in 1930 he completed
the Grand Slam,

besting amateurs
and professionals alike

by winning all four of the major golf
championships in the same calendar year.

But he still remained
an amateur,

paying his own travel expenses
to Scotland to win the Open.

Bobby Jones definitely
was an adopted son of St. Andrews

and I think it was a
relationship that was mutual.

I think he grew to love the
place with an absolute passion.

It's really a great treat to play before
a gathering that understands the job

and appreciates the difficulties
under which the players live.

Thank you very much.

The 10th hole is named
after him here in St. Andrews.

So a great man,
a great man indeed.

Bobby Jones retired from
competitive golf at the age of twenty-eight

but returned to America
a national hero.

"Championship golf is something
like a cage," Jones said,

"First, you're expected to get in and
then you're expected to stay there."

Jones returned
to Atlanta, Georgia,

with a dream of building his own golf
course and hosting his own tournament.

Cliff Roberts made a lot of money
at Wall Street and they became friends

because of Jones' notoriety as a golfer
and Cliff Roberts' interests in the game.

Cliff Roberts found the property,
showed it to Bobby Jones, they liked it,

and that's where
the dream came from.

Construction of the Augusta
National Golf Course began in 1931.

Locals were hired to clear and grade the
land and among them was Willy "Pappy" Stokes.

They're tearing down trees,
running plows, and when it rained,

Pappy would sit there and watch
the rain come down the hillsides.

By watching the rain,
Pappy had discovered an invaluable secret

that no matter where
a golfer was on the course,

all putts tended to break
towards Rae's Creek,

the lowest point of Augusta.

In 1934, the year Bobby Jones launched
the inaugural Masters tournament,

Pappy Stokes
stayed on as a caddie.

At only seventeen years of age and
harboring the secret of Rae's Creek,

Pappy guided Henry Picard to
his first Masters win in 1938.

And here comes the
putt that may lead to victory.

Pappy would, eventually,
win five different Masters tournaments

on the bag with four
different champions.

Pappy Stokes started the
Augusta National Caddie Corps

and as the guide Ben Crenshaw
called him "the godfather of the caddies."”

Caddies were not thought of as
the greatest citizens in the world,

but these guys were chosen from the
neighborhoods surrounding Augusta National.

I think a lot of them
did it out of necessity.

I started caddying at eleven
years old in Augusta Country Club.

My mother and father at the
time was working at the King Mill.

They were only making fifteen, sixteen dollars
a week and me making three dollars a day.

That was a lot of money
during that time.

I was a fifth-grader.

After school I could get over to the
Augusta Country Club in ten minutes walking,

we could shag balls and that's
how I made some extra money

to share some of
that with my mother.

Pappy Stokes gave us
caddie schools every Saturday morning.

He teaches how to read greens,
how to stand around the members,

and the etiquette and
everything about it.

Pappy taught these guys
how to not only to caddie,

but how to behave, how
to interact with the player.

It wasn't always important to
read putts and to pull clubs

but you had to understand
the mindset of the player.

You had to understand when he
was down, how to pick him up.

We were the best catchers in the world,
and we challenged each other,

who could read the greens the best, who could
pull the best clubs, and all that stuff.

In the 1960s as professional and
amateur golfers would arrive for the tournament,

the caddie master would match a player with
one of the golf clubs' in-house caddies.

This was a unique skill and
golfers soon came to request.

"The same caddie
as last year, please?"

Golf became a way to make a living
first when Arnold Palmer came on the scene,

and television came on the
scene in the late fifties, early sixties.

He was a handsome guy.

TV loved his magnetism.

Arnold brought golf to
the truck drivers and the plumbers.

I can remember my mother
watching golf for the first time on TV

because "He's just so
handsome, isn't he?"

You know, the shirt would
come untucked, with big arms.

When it came to the Masters,
the Augusta National's caddie master

assigned, a sixteen-year-old Nathaniel "Iron
Man" Avery to be Arnold Palmer's caddie.

He got the name "Iron Man" because he blew
three of his fingers off with a firecracker.

He must probably think he was
an Iron Man or something.

That's how as a kid he blew
a couple of his fingers off.

Nineteen sixty Palmer's coming
down the stretch to win the Masters.

Palmer fails the chip shot,
tosses his club at the golf bag.

Iron Man looks at Arnold Palmer,
says "Mr. Palmer, are we choking?"

Palmer says that he felt like Iron
Man was his father from years ago

giving him a hard time for not
acting properly on the golf course.

He caddied for all four of
Arnold Palmer's Masters wins.

Willie Peterson was a guy
that would stick his head

in the Caddyshack
at Augusta National

and make five or six wagers that Jack Nicklaus
was going to shoot sixty-five that day.

Nicklaus was a stoic
when he played.

Willie was exact opposite.

He was boastful, he was loud,
he was rambunctious,

and so, they played-off each
other as opposite personalities,

but, yet, they worked
together so nicely.

Willie Peterson caddied for Jack
in five of his six Masters wins

and Nathaniel Avery, Iron Man

caddied for all four of Arnold
Palmer's Masters wins.

These guys played such an instrumental
role in the players winning the tournament

and television ratings
went up, purses went up.

Caddies were making more of
a percentage working for guys,

the caddie ranks go right
up with the player ranks.

As TV began to popularize the sport
a new breed of freelance caddie was born.

The Pro Jock.

I remember in 1970, we would take
the Greyhound to each tournament.

I had a custom van that I fixed up with
abed and a cooler and this and that sort.

I made some friends
quickly out there.

You know you used to have to have
two or three or four guys to a room

just to break even
or to make it.

In 1971 when we were
coming to a golf course,

these guys jumped out of a car
and they put a knife to our throats

and they said, "If you show up tomorrow with
your long hair, we're gonna take care of you."

So, the next day, we showed up with a beanie
hat on, with our hair up in the beanie hat.

That's how tough
it was back then.

I kind of miss
some of the old days.

There used to be an old caddie and he walked
with a limp and besides he didn't have a limp.

And then you find out he kept
all his money in his left shoe.

If things were going good like, "Oh,
he's got his limp back. It's going good."

Driven by the lure of a
fifteen-hundred-dollar weekly salary

and up to ten percent of
a player's winnings,

the freelance caddie, the pro jock
was in full flower by the end of the 1970s.

As far as having a plan
when I got to Augusta,

I had no plan.

When Fuzzy Zoeller qualified
for his first Masters Tournament in 1979,

The Augusta National still
required players to use its caddies.

That was the rule. You couldn't
bring your caddie from the PGA Tour.

You had one of the Augusta
National Caddies as your caddie.

So, he comes and
gets Jerry Beard.

I said who
is Fuzzy Zoeller?

So, I asked Mike, I said, "Mike,
can this guy really play?"

He said, "He can play. Trust
me. Trust me. He can play."

Fuzzy Zoeller had absolutely
no idea how to play it.

He listened to Jerry Beard,
gave him the right club, how to putt.

He told me where to hit
it, where not to hit it.

It was like a blind man
with a seeing eye dog.

He led me around
that golf course.

Fuzzy tell me, "Come on now, highball
Tom Watson out right here on this hole."

He hit the biggest
drive we had all week.

We had a hundred and
thirty-six yards to the hole.

He said, "What do you like?" I said,
"Nothing but a picture with.

He said, "Well, probably you know what? I hit
the best knock down hit iron in the world."

I said, "Well, do your thing."

And he hits it in there may
be about ten, twelve feet.

So, first I say what it does I says about
four inches right and don't leave a show.

No way! A first year Masters
player wins without a local caddie

and by the way nobody has since.

No first year Masters
player has won

and a lot of it is because they
don't use the local caddies.

While caddies were recognized
as an undeniable asset to competitive golf,

the social class
system still lingered.

Golfers and caddies were still
separated by an unspoken line.

We were not allowed
in the clubhouse.

We were in the caddie pen
that's where you better stay.

Boy, you stay in the caddie pen.

Caddying used to be a tad amount
of being the guy who worked in the barn

or worked in the kitchen.

Uh, they weren't
very well thought of.

They just carried the
bag, that's all they did.

Club caddies who
wanted to play on their home course

could only play once a week on the
day the club was closed to members

and often with limited
access to holes.

We had some good caddies
that could really play.

We had guys like Jim Dent who
went to the regular tour and played golf,

Senior Tour and played and
did very well on Senior Tour.

Henry Brown.

These guys were great players.

You know when
I started the tour,

we had over two dozen blacks and Hispanics,
playing the tour.

Where do you think these guys came
from? They came from the caddie ranks.

Dent, Elder, Me, Sifford, Thorpe,
they all came from the caddie ranks.

Not bragging right now
at seventy-four years old,

I still can break eighty, you
know, I can break eighty.

First time I played golf ever,
was this tee box right here.

That was just a little bit
farther than I hit it the first time.

Greg Puga was born in East
LA and honed his golf skills on public courses.

A world away from the members"
only private clubs he'd seen on television.

His journey as a caddie was born
from his desire to compete as a golfer

at the highest level.

I played Pop Warner
Football since I was nine, baseball,

but what upset me was that if I would
play my best, we could still lose the game.

If I sat on the bench all game
and we won that didn't feel fulfilling.

That's why I love golf.

There's just no excuse. You
either play well or you don't.

- Let's go, daddy.
- Let's go.

My high school didn't
have a golf team.

So, my math teacher, Paul Isozaki
it was just natural for me to ask him,

if he wanted to start a golf program
because I wanted to play high school golf.

I'm an average golfer
or maybe not even that.

So, all our team
basically were just beginners.

I mean they were like
my friends you know,

the guys from the football team
and I just got whoever I could.

"Hey, you guys want
to go play golf?"

Roosevelt High
School is in East LA.

The community is Boyle Heights.

That was when it was
this gang infested area

and when I used to drive
them home and drop them off,

the gangsters would drive next to me and
you know, eye me out and it was not pretty.

My mom started taking me
to the driving range almost every day.

And I'd want to finish my homework as soon
as I could so I could come and practice.

And then when I figured out that I couldn't
get better I realized I wanted golf lessons.

It was a big expense
for my mom and dad.

They told me a hundred dollars.
That's all I can afford.

You know do your job.

So, he said, what do you think?

And I said, "Well, he's got some
talent and he's got a good attitude."”

I said, "You just send him,
and I will work with him anytime."

I didn't have access
to country clubs, you know

because we didn't have
money to be a member.

I found out that by caddying
we get to play there on Mondays.

I figured, "Hey, I could
caddie there and play"

and get used to the conditions
of tournament playing.

Golf is a
game of privilege.

I mean if you were to grow
up in a country club,

you're going to be able
to play all the golf you want,

hit all the balls you want,
play thirty-six a day.

I mean if you are rich, golf
is a great sport to learn.

But if you don't have that it's
really hard to become a great player.

Twenty-nine-year-old
Greg Puga from Los Angeles

started off almost holing it out on one,
but par was good enough for a one up lead.

I did a lot of amateur
qualifiers and things like that.

And I finally qualified
for the mid-am.

Puga closed out the
match easily on seventeen

to win this National
Championship, three-in-one.

To qualify to play in the
mid-amateur and then go ahead and win it

and beat some of the best amateur
players in the country and the world.

To do that it's a
remarkable feat.

By winning the US mid-am,
I got an invitation to the Masters.

That's when I finally said, "Yeah,
I'm going to Augusta," you know?

To come from Boyle Heights
to the Masters as a caddie

I mean that's
just Cinderella story.

I mean it really is the
Cinderella story, Greg Puga.

At that time when he was
there at the Masters no one...

That a dude from our caddie yard is out there
at Augusta playing right now, was cool as hell.

Everybody was excited, and a bunch
of caddies and a bunch of members

went down there to support him.

I got to play with Ben Crenshaw,
the last nine holes of the practice round.

I got to meet Carl Jackson.

Carl was talking to me about certain holes
and giving me certain strategies and stuff.

I mean to be just with Ben Crenshaw alone on
the back night of Augusta that was pretty cool.

It wouldn't have been as big a deal
for someone who grew up like Jack Nicklaus

at a private club and
had all the advantages.

Greg wasn't given any equipment;

He wasn't being fed freebies
and all stuff like that.

He played public golf courses.

It's one of the great achievements in golf,
what he managed to do.

And I take a little credit but
it's mostly what the player does.

To me that was the best
tournament of the whole year.

A caddie playing in the Masters. I
mean it was on the front page every day.

He's a caddie at Bel-Air Country Club now,
and some guys don't know it.

They're going like, "I think I need to
hit an eight here, Greg." I can do it.”

And this guy is on his way
to a hundred and twenty.

Meanwhile, on Monday,
Greg shot sixty-six, you know.

So, and Greg never says a word.

But it's extra special having a caddy
on the valley that's played in the Masters.

So, you don't really
get that all too often.

Well, back when I first started
the way the caddies got jobs

were to wait in the parking
lots for the pros to show up

and ask them if they
could caddie that week.

Most of my jobs
came out of a parking lot.

I said, "Tell you what? My main
focus is for you to make it."

If you make it, I make money.

"If you don't,
I don't make money."

You could lose money and you
did lose money a lot of weeks,

but we did it back then
for the love of the game.

I showed up in 1973 to
do the parking lot in St. Louis there

and here comes a long-haired kid
and he said "Could I caddie for you?"

And I said, "Sure,
I'll give you a shot."

And I indoctrinated
him very quickly.

Bruce Edwards understood
what made him tick.

He could give him some criticism
and Tom Watson would say,

"Okay I understand."

That week he did
everything I asked him to do.

And at the end of
the round Bruce said,

"Well, could I caddie for you the rest
of the year?" And I said, "Hold on here.

Let's just go one week at a time.
You can caddie for me next week."

Well, that one week at a time
lasted for well over 20 years.

I think Bruce was the first professional
caddie who wanted to make it his life's work.

He wanted to be out there with
Tom in the battle, every week.

As a teenager Bruce Edwards had
a dream of one day caddying at the Masters

but Augusta National still
required players to use its caddies.

Bruce Edwards watched from
home while his loop, Tom Watson

won the 1977 and 1981 Masters
with Leon McCladdie on the bag.

The 1982 tournament
had a rainstorm one day

and it delayed play and finally play
was postponed to the following morning.

A lot of Augusta National caddies
did not get word the next morning

of what time play
was going to resume.

And so a handful of players were left without
a caddie when play was ready to start.

A group of golfers, including Tom Watson, used
the opportunity to appeal to Augusta National,

asking that the ban on outside
caddies be permanently lifted.

Augusta agreed to let the golfers bring
their own caddies beginning in 1983,

allowing Bruce and
Tom to work together,

but leaving many of the trusted
Augusta caddies out of the tournament.

Many of the players thought that
since this is a major championship

that we ought to have
our own caddies

simply because our own caddies
know us better than the caddies do here.

It's something I've been looking
forward to since I was thirteen years old.

The Augusta National
caddie lived for the Masters

to make enough money to tie
them over during the summer.

It devastated a lot of them because
they couldn't make any money.

Bruce Edwards set a new
standard for professional Tour caddies.

He maintained a relationship with
Tom Watson that spanned thirty years.

Even after being diagnosed
with ALS in 2003

Bruce and Tom continued to work together
while Tom paid Bruce's medical bills.

He's the big brother
I never had.

He taught me a lot on how to deal
with the success, how to deal with failure

and to hang in there and carry
on and get through the rough times

and that's all I know and that's
because of Tom Watson.

Bruce Edwards
passed away on April 8, 2004,

in a twist of fate on the
first day of the Masters,

the tournament that he
and Tom had loved so much.

He loved the Masters. He was
there to watch me, he followed me

and there was just a little
extra oomph in his step

that week being at Augusta,
you could always tell.

I said to myself,

"Carl, if you think
you a good caddie,

you could... you're about
to find out what you can do

because this guy could
hit it where he's looking."

Ben Crenshaw was introduced
to Carl Jackson at the 1976 Masters

and placed second that year
behind Raymond Floyd.

Caddies and a player
have to mesh personality-wise.

They have to have that
sort of intrinsic something

that you can't define,
and we hit it off.

Carl is a very soft-spoken guy.

He doesn't shout commands, but
I can tell when he's serious.

I can tell when he
wants me to calm down

because if you pull some shots
off, you get very, very high.

After winning their
first Masters together in 1984

Ben Crenshaw would continue
to return to the Masters

and team with Carl Jackson
in pursuit of another win.

Ben made me a part of his
game deep into his game.

I feel like I won, too.

So many years after that we
had chances, close chances.

We've been low a million
times out there.

So, he's gotten me going
in a lot of instances, too.

Ben and Carl won
their first Masters in 1984.

A little over a decade later they
would once again be contenders.

But just days before
the tournament began

Ben was shaken by the loss of his coach,
friend, and mentor, Harvey Penick.

Ben has to go to the funeral in Texas
early in the week of the Masters Tournament

so this is obviously going to be something
that's going to keep him from playing well.

Well, he's hitting balls on the practice
facility and sort of shaking his head

because he's not hitting it very well
and Carl, who never does this, interjects.

He says, "Why don't you move the
ball a little bit forward in your stance

and make a tighter turn on your
golf swing and that might work."

Although Carl had
solved Ben's swing issue

Ben was emotionally drained over
the loss of Harvey Penick.

Still on the final day, he came to the
18th hole with a narrow two-stroke lead.

They love it.

Before he could hit his second shot
the spectators are congratulating him.

He had broken his concentration.

He looked at me and said, "Come on buddy, we
got a couple of more good shots to play here."”

You get out there in the heat of things
and you'll be surprised how you go blank.

There's a lot of pressure
to have your guy perform

and it's so emotional.

That's when you really mesh as one because
you don't want the wrong thing said.

The toughest part of
this job is the psychology of it.

It's knowing when to speak
up and how to speak up

with the right verbiage and the right tone
to set a different stage for your player.

On the 18th hole the great
putter needed to drop a two-footer

to win his second Masters,
eleven years after his first one.

Golf cannot be a complete journey
unless you have someone at your side.

And to have somebody
like Carl, at a place like that

I could not have accomplished what I
accomplished over there without Carl.

Pebble Beach hosted the
US Amateur Championship in 1929.

Although Bobby Jones was
eliminated in early match play

his very attendance thrust Pebble
Beach into the international spotlight.

It's fabled. It's historic.
It's legendary.

But the best part about it

is on one of the most unbelievably spectacular
pieces of earth that God ever created.

Frequented by celebrities,
professionals, politicians,

and the sight of many
historic moments in golf,

Pebble Beach has the distinct designation as
being a Golf Resort, not an exclusive club.

The caddies are there
to serve the general public.

The one thing here at Pebble
Beach is they want to have an experience.

And the caddie is one of the
biggest parts of the experiences here.

They might be a 20
handicapper or something.

So, I might tell them that
well I'm a pretty good golfer.

I play a lot of amateur golf
and I can help you; You know.

And then after a couple of holes
they can tell that, and they'll trust you.

And that's a big part of the
experience is having a good time

and the trust you develop
between the player and the caddie.

This may be the one
and only time they will ever play here.

You just really want
to make it special.

I've had terminal people that they
want to be the last round of golf.

You know I was on the tee one day on 18, and
the player that I got, he was standing there

and just gazing around
and finally said,

"I've been waiting fifty
years to stand on this tee."”

Then I thought, I get to
come out here every day

and then they give me money
at the end, how lucky am I?

I think it's like anywhere from the 6-5 iron
just hit a little cut, get it up there dish.

I would like the 3-wood.

- 3-wood? Well, yeah.
- Because it will cut.

I don't know if
you got that shot.

A pro caddie,
on the other hand,

you have to have everything
down to the yard and the pros are...

You know, they're,
they're really critical.

If you're on the... say
72nd hole of a tournament

and your player says to you,
do you like 4-iron or 3-iron?

You better be right, you know.
It's not a guessing game.

You, you have to know your players game,
you know, how far he can hit each iron.

I've seen a lot of resort caddies not do
well with pros. It's a whole different game.

It's competitive.

Major championships
are really hard on caddies.

They are long weeks.
There's a lot of pressure on you.

It's hard on your family,
if you're married and have children

because I mean, some years, we're gone
thirty-five, thirty-eight weeks a year.

Didn't really want
to do the traveling.

I like going to home to my
wife. I have a great son.

That's a great way to make a living if you
make the cut, but it's not always that easy.

June was forty-four years.
I started here in June of '71

and I just I love coming to
work, nine times out of ten.

I've been caddying for about
forty-four years. It was in my blood.

I absolutely love caddying.

God's country, Pebble Beach.

Nick Faldo.

Renowned for his
single-minded dedication to golf,

Nick Faldo was a perfectionist with a
reputation for being very demanding to work for.

In 1989, Fanny Sunesson was
the only female caddie on the tour

and renowned for her dedication to golf
and also the reputation as a perfectionist.

She came to Europe
in the mid-eighties.

She was caddying for other players and so,
I got to know her.

And I was having a rough time
with my guy, you know.

We weren't communicating
and all that sort of thing.

And I said, "I want to talk to you about
something. I'm going to buy you dinner."

- I said, "Order a spaghetti bolognaise at the hotel.
- - the other side of the park."

He was number one in the world,
had won five tournaments, and he said,

"I'm thinking about changing caddy
and you're number one on my list."

Well, I ran back to my little hotel
around the corner from the players hotel

and called my parents.

And my dad answered, and I said, "Dad,
dad. Nick Faldo wants me to work for him."

So, she's says,
"Oh, wow! Yeah, that's great.

What about... what's the schedule?" I said,
"Well, I don't know yet.

So, I'll see, I'll see you in
the morning for breakfast."

So, then meet her the
next morning, go whoop.

I just gave her... I said, "All right that's
the schedule for next year, girl. Off we go."

That's it.

Final 71 and Nick Faldo
is the Open Champion.

A quick kiss for caddie
Fanny Sunesson.

Fanny and Nick won the Masters
and British Open their first year together.

And fans would soon shower
her with applause equal to Faldo's.

Well, we didn't realize it, the
weight behind us, it was creating, at all.

Honestly, didn't.

Suddenly I'm trying to become world number
one and Masters champion blah, blah, blah,

and I've got a lady caddy.

Fortunately, to me and to Fanny that
was the great thing. It was like so what?

I think in the beginning when I
started, no one wanted me because I was a girl.

And I think, I had to work harder maybe to
prove myself, but I'm a hard worker anyway.

So, I didn't think
of it that way.

Well, Fanny is the hardest
working caddie that's every caddied.

There's absolutely no one's
worked harder as a caddie.

She was as true a professional
as there ever was.

Well, she had to be because
she caddied for him.

She was one of the greatest
psychologists that there was on the golf course

because she understands not
just the mental side of caddying

but the mental
side of golfing too.

If I hadn't
caddied all those years,

I wouldn't have the knowledge
and experience that I have.

And I think I use experience
from caddying every day.

Golf has seen
many changes over the years

but maybe none greater than
when this young fellow took the stage.

The biggest change was Tiger.

Tiger put more money in
their pockets than anybody.

All of a sudden here's Tiger,
here's the guy who's diverse.

He's not white guy wearing
a white golf shirt and khaki.

He's bold, he's going for it.
He hits the ball a long way.

He's affiliated with Nike. He's
never been involved with golf before.

People that don't know anything about golf
are all of a sudden attracted to the sport.

I guess, hello world, huh?

When Tiger became
pro and the purses went big

and it became a more
glamorous profession.

Now, everybody wanted to jump in

and they think we have
the greatest jobs in the life.

Tiger just
doubled everything.

Doubled the crowds, doubled the money, and,
consequently, doubled the money for caddies.

Bring it in there.

When Tiger Woods turned pro,
he chose Michael "Fluff" Cowan

for his professional debut at the
1996 Greater Milwaukee Open.

Fluff was the most famous caddie in the world
at the time because he was such a character.

And so, Tiger wanted Fluff.

The duo went on
to win seven PGA Tour victories,

but after just two and a half
years Tiger broke it off with Fluff.

Lo and behold, two or three days later I had
a phone call and I thought it was my mate

calling because he can do
Tiger's accent to a tee.

So, first time I put
the phone down.

Second time it rings again and I was with my
friend Bob, and I said, "Bob, da-da-da-da-da."

Put the phone down. The third time
and I got to thinking maybe it's not Bob.

Well it wasn't, it
was Tiger Woods.

So, we got off
to a good start there

and very quickly he started
winning Majors at a very fast rate.

We liked having fun, we
were both driven, you know.

We both had a no-lose attitude,
I guess you could call it.

So, you know it became
a very good partnership.

This duo quickly
began to rack up championships

and Steve became one of the
best-known caddies in the business.

In Tiger's heyday, Steve
Williams was caddying for him one year,

when Tiger had
such a great year,

Steve Williams was the
highest-paid athlete in New Zealand.

Tiger and Steve
achieved unprecedented success

and became close on
and off the golf course.

Yeah, well we became
very great mates.

I considered Tiger
one of my best mates.

And I think he considered me
one of his best mates.

He was best man at my wedding.
I went to his wedding and so forth.

You know, it's good when you get two people
with a strong will, strong determination,

it provides
a great relationship.

It was you know, particularly,
on the mental side of it.

Williams was renowned
or his tough-minded caddying

which sometimes
got him into trouble

like the time he took a spectator's
camera and heaved it into a pond

after the fan took a photograph
in Tiger's backswing.

You know, I don't know if
bouncer is that word that I'd like to use,

but a lot of people thought that I
might have been enforcing things

that maybe should have
been out of my control.

But I was trying to give Tiger the exact
same playing field as every other player.

But in 2011, a partnership
which had set a high bar came to an end

when Tiger fired Steve Williams.

Steve was Tiger's caddie for thirteen of
his fourteen Major Championship victories.

If I turned the nine, I could
side sauce right back in there.

Again yeah, but you can do it
but the thing we can't control

is if it catches the wind
downwards it's hooking and going.

- Yeah, I'd like it to be...
- You're coming in hot.

You're really involved
in million-dollar decisions.

I mean, if you make the right decision
and your player wins a golf tournament,

they win a million dollars.

Coming right at it.

Oh!

That had conversation
and that shot was perfect.

- In the caddie-player hall of fame, right there.
- Yeah, no question.

Caddying has become
a profession into itself.

You can make a great living
if you get the right player.

This past year when Jordan
Spieth had such success

Michael Greller made well over a million dollars
that year just based on Jordan's winnings.

Caddies today that are caddying the tour,
they're all college graduates.

They're well educated.

You think thirty years
ago caddies had financial advisors?

Thirty years ago caddies is like,
"Hey, man get gray out of the bush.

Tell him we're ready to go."

Yeah, the other prize money grew,
and the structure of the tour grew.

The difficulty of the golf courses
and then the professionalism

needed to increase from
a caddie's point of view.

So then it became
a bit of more of a job.

As late as 1993 I can remember
first place in a tournament,

we played in on tour
was $54,000, first place.

And now it's 1.6 million or 1.3
million or whatever like that.

You know you have a tax guy.
You know, you got money managers and stuff.

It's a business now
and guys treat it as such.

You could see the change coming when
the pros could bring in their own caddies.

I guess that's good economics,
but you know, you just don't...

You just can't go out
and get a bag anymore.

You could go to the parking lot in 1990
and pick up four or five different bags

and great people and great
players but not anymore.

I remember when I first
started caddying, there was no carts

and there's 300 caddies
fighting for a bag, you know.

And if I got a bag, I was
the happiest kid in the world.

When I first started,
I got three dollars a bag.

Three.

But then they bumped
it to three fifty.

And then they bumped it to four.

So, the money got out of control.
It almost got away from me.

For myself I learned a lot about
how you're supposed to treat people.

It's a great education.

For me it was a great education and I'm very
lucky to have some great schools that I went to.

I went to the Second City in
Chicago. I went to Saturday Night Live.

I went to National Lampoon
and I was a caddie.

And they were all a big
part of whatever I became.

There's Chick Evans here.

Chick the first amateur to win the
National Amateur and the National Open.

He's also the founder of the
Evans Scholar Foundation.

And I guess you
know my boy here.

Now look for a novelty today,
looks to confine this to 18 holes.

- Dad.
- Don't dig any extra ones.

I don't want any small talk,
just stand there and learn something.

Son, pick up that
ball and follow me.

Chick Evans was a great amateur
golfer and he made a phonograph lesson.

Made some pretty good money,
but he can't take the money

or else he loses
his amateur status.

So his mother said,
"Why don't you give it away?"

So, his idea of giving it away was to
start a scholarship program for caddies.

It was a way for kids
who couldn't go to college

because they couldn't afford to go to
some of the Midwestern clubs and caddie

and, therefore, they would
get a college scholarship.

I'd like to find a caddie who
didn't have the experience

that the kid from Ignatius had or
the kid that went to US or Gilmore.

I'd like to find a good one that
went to the public-school system.

The only way he's going to get to go to
college is because of the Evans Scholarship.

I'm applying for the Evans
Scholarship, obviously, for financial reasons

but working on my service.
I do the caddying.

My cousin actually
got a scholarship, too.

So, it's kind of been a dream of
mine ever since I learned about it.

I always took a little extra
time and go out of my way

to work with those
young boys or girls.

The Evans Scholarship raises
more than sixty million dollars a year

from more than
twenty-seven thousand donors.

Oil and gas man, George Solich
and his brother Geoff,

established the Solich Caddie
and Leadership Academy

to help optimize a candidate's chances
of receiving the Evans scholarship.

Getting the Evans scholarship
changed the entire course of my life.

We wanted to provide that opportunity
for as many kids as we possibly could.

We thought that the Solich
Caddie and Leadership Academies

would be a great opportunity
to get to cast a wider net

and get a greater selection of potential
candidates for the Evans Scholarship.

You're looking kind of lazy.

You're kind of... I'm sorry it's
just you want to be upright.

You want to have that other
hand behind your back.

You're kind of standing in attention, giving
that golfer your full attention that's good.

You know it teaches you how to
go through tough days and tough people,

and early mornings, and hot
summer days, and it takes grit.

You should be able to do this in six
strokes and you've probably had twenty.

To receive
the Evans Scholarship,

some of the main points that you
need to have are like mainly academics,

leadership, you need to do
community service all throughout.

You have to have a good attitude to be
able to represent the Evans Scholarship

and all that in the right way.

You've got to learn to
serve before you can lead.

And caddying is the
best way to serve.

I mean you have to just stick with it
whether the guy's shooting 150 or 69.

You got to serve, and you don't get to say
anything. And you got to show up on time.

I think that's a great thing
to teach your kids.

You get to meet
people you really love

and then you get to meet people you don't
like so much because that's real life, right?

You know, you've got to be
able to be sort of resilient.

You know, it's sort of like what
does it mean to be to do well at life.

You can feel comfortable, you
know, really serving someone

and you can be quiet and let
someone have all their moment.

You don't have to take
over... take the stage.

- What's the biggest tip you've got all year?
- Um, sixty dollars.

Sixty bucks?
That's the biggest tip?

Yes, Sir.

- How much?
- Sixty dollars.

- That was pretty big.
- For your tip?

Duffy usually doesn't
even get to sixty.

That'll be safe today.

So, the BMW Championship is the second-oldest
championship in the United States.

One hundred percent of the proceeds
go to the Evans Scholars Foundation.

At the BMW Championship
every time a player steps up to a par 3,

there's a chance that some lucky
student could receive an Evans scholarship

if only the guy
would hit it in the hole.

Just hit it in the hole!

Hunter Mahan said this is a very easy
hole occasions where the ball wants to end up.

Hunter Mahan actually hit a
hole-in-one in the BMW Championship.

When I got the scholarship,
I couldn't believe it.

It was kind of surreal.

If I didn't get the
Evans Scholarship,

I wouldn't be as far as I am
in terms of my character.

For Mahan coming up
to retrieve that souvenir.

The day that I got the Evans Scholarship
my mom texted me when I was at school

and was like, "We got an envelope
in the mail and it's from the Evans."

I was like, "Is it a small
envelope or is it a big envelope?"

And she was like, "No,
it's a really big envelope."

I just like, put it down and
like started like bawling.

I don't know, it was just like
very surreal that whole day.

The last question in the
Evans Scholarship interview

is how would this scholarship impact
you and your family and change your life?

My mom has had breast
cancer since I was born.

So, she's had it
for eighteen years.

And there's no way I was going to
college with all of her medical bills.

So, this is going to completely give
me the opportunity to go out there,

be an engineer
and make a difference.

And change people's
lives like my mom's.

And, unfortunately, my mom
passed away in February,

but she loved that I was a caddie
and she was my biggest supporter.

So, I think about that every day
and if I wasn't an Evans Scholar,

I don't think I'd
really have a lot.

So, it's changed my life and it's
continuing to do so every single day.

- There's two color hats. There's a rookie and advanced.
- Right.

So, we have a green and blue.

But I think you're ready.

- I think I am, too.
- I think we're going to retire that hat.

- Done a nice job today.
- Thank you.

It didn't dawn on me
until a few years in

that my ten years as a math
teacher for fifth and sixth-graders really

in a strange way, prepared
me for being a caddie.

In 2007 Chambers
Bay Golf Course

opened one mile from where Michael
Greller was a fifth-grade math teacher.

During summer breaks

Michael began to caddy to supplement
his already enormous teacher's salary.

I'm on the couch watching
the Masters in 2012

and my wife said, "You
know, in five or ten years

if you're still sitting on the couch
watching how's that going to make you feel?

And you had an opportunity
to potentially pursue that."

It really made me think
about, you know,

how passionate am I about this?

In 2010 the US Am came here and I got to work
for Justin Thomas and just hit it off with him.

He had a great week and my little
caddie dream was off and running.

Justin Thomas
introduced Michael

to an eighteen-year-old
friend from Texas

who was climbing the junior
ranks and looking for a caddie.

And we had an initial connection to
each other and just natural chemistry.

I'll tell you what if we're going to talk
about player and caddie combinations

I don't think I've ever seen a
stronger one than Jordan and Michael.

Jordan Spieth was pretty vocal in the
golf course and will talk to his golf ball.

Sit down,
ball. Sit down!

Michael Greller is instrumental in helping
him use that energy in a positive way.

Jordan Spieth,
at nineteen years old,

qualified for the 2014 Masters

just three years after joining
forces with Michael Greller.

My biggest role with
Jordan is to get him to believe in himself

and as an educator, I always
thought that my biggest role

is getting kids to
believe in themselves

and it's the same thing, you
know, caddying on the PGA Tour.

♪♪♪

Arriving at the 2014
Masters as unknowns,

completely unfamiliar
with the course,

Michael Greller approached Augusta
looper legend Carl Jackson for some help.

I introduced myself, asked if he had
a few moments of his time to spend with me.

And next thing I know,
I'm at the caddie area with Carl Jackson.

They would take out Carl's
weathered, old yardage book

where every green
has a red dot on it.

That's the direction of Rae's
Creek on that particular green.

Carl learned that all putts brake
toward Rae's Creek from Pappy Stokes.

And, largely, kept that a secret
between he and Crenshaw.

They figured that gave
them an advantage.

I think Carl was winding
down his Masters career

and maybe wanted to pass along
some of his knowledge to somebody else.

At just
twenty years of age,

Jordan Spieth would finish the 2014
Masters, second behind Bubba Watson.

And then in 2015,

Michael Greller had gone from being
a math teacher and local club caddie

to one of the most
well-respected, well-liked,

and highest paid for
old caddies in the world.

Michael and Team Spieth has
helped Jordan reach many goals,

but maybe none as memorable
as the 2017 Open Championship.

In the final round of play, Spieth was
tied for the lead going into the 13th hole.

Oh, dear.
This is so far right.

Yeah, yeah.
This is catastrophic.

Jordan launched his
drive into the knotty grass of a knoll.

Not usually thought of as
being part of the golf course.

He's taking an
unplayable, Jimmy.

He's taking an unplayable...
He can't hit it off that slope, Sammy.

It's so steep you can hardly
stand on it. Let alone hit a ball.

There is an eye in Michael
and in Spieth but there is no I in team.

And Jordan, going
against his own instinct,

agreeing with Mike's call on
the yardage and the club.

Hmm, the plot thickens.

Brilliant. Absolutely
brilliant from Jordan Spieth.

Jordan Spieth, the Open Champion that took
him almost half an hour to play the 13th.

Spieth became
only the second male golfer

to win three Majors
before his 24th birthday.

I'd like to thank my caddie,
Michael, for keeping me in it today,

after not quite an ideal start.

And this is as much mine as it is
his right now at this very moment.

And I really
appreciate that, Mikey.

You deserve all the credit in the
world for this... this championship.

We live in a world where it's
all about a what's someone doing for me?

What's everybody doing for me?
And it's humbling to be in a profession

that is the complete opposite of that
where it's always what can I do for you?

My name is Allen Hall. I'm from
White River Junction, Vermont.

And I'm here with my son Hunter,
who has disabilities of autism.

And he is playing for the United
States of America in the world games.

We're going to aim for right
between the two sand traps.

That's beautiful,
Hunter. Nice job.

We started him playing
golf fifteen years ago.

He got so excited the first time
just watching the flight of the ball.

He just holds that club all the
way back and doesn't move just...

He's just in awe of
the flight of the ball.

Yay!

Both my wife and I are pretty
good about Hunter's range.

We both know each club
selection and what his range is.

So, that's... that's an
important job as a caddie.

And he trusts us.
He believes in that range.

Give it a good stroke 'cause you're
through some thick grass and you're uphill.

That's a good shot.

Oh! Whoo!

He doesn't get upset that you know, he
might shoot 103 and somebody shoots a 79.

He's happy with the range
of golf he can play.

And he just enjoys every time
he can get out there and play.

I've had
a lot of jobs coming up.

You know sheet metal mechanic,
bus driver, lot of good jobs,

but for some reason I wanted
to be on a golf course.

And it's more than just
the money with me.

It's the satisfaction of seeing somebody,
do something that's very, very hard.

That's the fun part about it.

That's the thing of a caddie.
That's a true caddie.

I wouldn't trade it for
nothing in the world.

My last thirty years
have been great.

I don't have a lot,

but it's been great.

I wanted to work for somebody that I
would love to be around on and off the course.

You know it had nothing to do with
traveling the world, making money.

It was I want to be around
somebody I enjoy.

You know he's become
one of my best friends.

Standing behind the
most successful players in the world

are the caddies
that inspire them.

Tom Watson and Alfie Fyles,

later with Bruce Edwards,

Arnold Palmer and
Nathaniel "Iron Man" Avery,

Jack Nicklaus
and Willie Peterson,

Jerry Beard and Fuzzy Zoeller,

Nick Faldo and family,

Tiger Woods and Steve Williams.

And just as Michael Greller and Jordan Spieth
are in the early days of their journey,

Ben Crenshaw and Carl
Jackson's has come to an end.

They teamed up for their first
Masters Tournament in 1976

and met there every April
for thirty-nine years.

And won two Masters together,
nearly won three others

and on the same day in
2015, they retired together.

I came off the 36th-hole and I could see
that big figure on the back of the greens,

and it gave me a... it just...
It... it warmed my heart.

It's showing front and center,
how much of a team game golf is now.

And that the guys who think the caddie is
just there to show up, stand up, and shut up,

the guys who think that about
caddies, they don't win.

And they stopped winning
a long time ago.

Golf is the
only sport in the world

where an assistant,
an ally, a coach, a therapist,

maybe even a family
member, definitely a friend,

is allowed on the field
of play with the athlete.

No matter the technical
advice a caddie may offer,

it's the relationship that
determines their success.

♪♪♪

♪ Oh fellow of Scotland ♪

♪ When will we see
Your likes again ♪

♪ Your likes again ♪

Take one.

Are you familiar with Nick Faldo's
former caddie Fanny Sunesson?

I never touched her.

I was...

- Uh...
- Do you have a nickname?

I don't think I can talk
about my nickname.

So, he's uh, I'm not ready
to talk about it on camera.

President Clinton visited
Ballybunion a few years back.

They put the statue
up right after his visit.

It cost thirty-three
thousand pounds.

It's a monument. There are people that
look at it, people take photographs there,

but we could have done with filling potholes
instead of putting that statue there.

My rule as a caddie
is keep up, shut up.

That's number one.

Show up and shut up.

- Show up and shut up.
- Keep up and shut up.

Show up, keep up, shut up.

Show up, shut up and keep up.

Somebody who shows up, shuts
up, and is on time all the time.

No. I'm just kidding.

But most of all, shut up.

Well, I think we all caddied for
Chick Evans at one point or another.

He had a driver that was about
as long as this boom right here.

But he was like... he was like... he
was like caddying for the Dalai Lama.

He was sort of a saint and
he really was a sweet man.

So, I jump ship in Hong Kong.

And I make my way over to Tibet

and I get down as a looper at a
course over there in the Himalayas.

A looper?

A looper, you know,
a caddie. A looper.

John.

Thank you, thank you.