Here's a new one. I currently can not play without a caddie due to a back injury. I can't ride in carts, I can't carry my own and I can't keep up pushing a trolley. Had a fantastic time this weekend walking 18 each day with a caddie driving my cart along side me. It's difficult to explain but having a caddie drive my cart while I walked alone was more enjoyable than having a guy on the bag. The cart enabled him to drive up to my ball, lift clean and place it (will it ever stop raining), get a yardage all just in time for me to arrive. My partners, who were all in carts alone, said they never saw me play so fast. The caddie, a 68 year old good friend, also said it was easier on him. Win/win.
There are about four or five players I've known for several years who have me do this for similar ortho-medical reasons. One of them was fantastic player in the day. Though we can and have talked NFL football for hours, he gets his private time while I'm out ahead scoping his shot...whenever there's a big hill or he's pucked it over the other side of the green is when he jumps in, I slide over so that he can at least stabilize himself against the steering wheel. I'm always able to get out ahead and watch the tee shots like a spotter, I'm always ready with his distance, the wind, and a seed bottle for a splashy divot and he gets to navigate the worst of it and just play the best he can...plus he has a place to stow his smokes, his watch, and a couple of cups of ice water. If it gets slow on a hot day, we park over by the shade of a tree.
After three and half decades of this, believe me I don't even feel the labor of carrying or not carrying, but this method definitely frees me up to the maximum potential to serve someone's golf. Caddying...for multiple players especially...is all about anticipation and multi-tasking...where might the player go, what might he do, whose away, how can I time raking, reading, tending, pulling, for 2-4 guys...and having a cart at my disposal is like having the internet, compared to a smoke signal.
That's what it's all about guys...serving the man's (men's) golf...I was taught and absorbed that THAT is the whole fucking ball of wax...to free the player up of all other labors, the divots, the raking, the yardage, the tending, the pulling, the searching...and let him just play his game. As one gets older and more mature (and still plies the trade), the nuances spurt...and after a real long time, you get a person who knows how to serve many, many peoples' golf in a variety of contexts, tournament and recreational.
Still...
I can't...(no, I can believe it) that this conversation has such oxygen still...
But I'll add something to this whole rate/tip thing...
Tomorrow at Club X, there is an outing, where every two players are assigned a caddie. Under normal circumstances the rate would be $85 a bag, this would be announced by loudspeaker to the staged golfers about to roll...the caddiemaster will say, every time, "We have a renown caddie program. If the caddies honor that reputation, you can reward them with anything you like." And usually what happens is that each caddie receives $25-$50 a bag on top of the $85, depending on how well they were received...making for a total of $170 + ($50 - $100) tip... for two bags or $220-$270 for the day.
Tomorrow however, it is the outing organizers wish each year that their players not have to reach into their pockets at all, so they pay "build in" a $25 tip per bag in what they pay "out the window" and so this "tip included rate" is $110 per bag, usually two bags, so $220. This will be announced with equal clarity, the same way every time..."The caddies base rate plus a tip of $25 per bag has been paid by your host. The caddies are aware of this and are not to solicit a tip which has already been paid. Please enjoy your day."
Of course, in 90% of these cases, the outing organizer is either picking up the caddies fee as part of their hosting (and so all one is giving is the tip), or it was built into the price you paid to get into the American Cancer Society outing at Top 100 Course X (you wanted to play there at those built-in prices).
cheers
vk