I apologize in advance, because I want to react here to parts of this conversation I find a bit grating. Full disclosure, I have never played with a caddie, but I've play in rounds where others had them. I know people who were caddies, and would even consider caddying as a hobby if I'd never injured my back. I obviously mean no disrespect to anyone involved here, but I do want to speak up.
I think they're an anachronism.
I couldn't agree more with Niall here. Caddies exist as a remnant of a time with a fairly fixed class system. We've held on to them, I think, in theory more than in practice. The pros use them, but more as teammates than as a service. The rich af clubs still use them. They are also a luxury service at resorts, which makes sense as well. The vast majority of courses, however, do not use them.
We need to remember that a class system
is bad. Most Americans thankfully don't even really know what that means, but if you haven't read the Lord of the Rings while understanding that Frodo is upper class, and Sam is working class, then you haven't really understood Tolkien's writing, and you won't see that Sam is the actual main character.
This presents a real quandary when thinking about caddie services provided today. Ideally we should see caddies as course guides to people unfamiliar with a course (which is why they thrive at resorts), or as a teammate-esque partner at a club -- where the members should know the caddies personally, and have a professional-client relationship with them:
Bad caddie = poor club management.
Caddies are bad because they have either not been trained, they are inexperienced, or of poor work ethic.
Lots of caddies are classified as independent contractors (sometimes when they shouldn't be) so this take doesn't make much sense to me. If a club wants to have a serious commitment to caddies, they would make them employees with long-term contracts, provide training, and pay them regardless of whether they are on the bag. This means paying taxes that that entails. You can't just bring in independent contractors and expect them to perform like trained/committed employees, especially in a service industry.
I miss the days when caddies were high school and college kids, they were much more humble and appreciative.
This kind of attitude drives me crazy. You're hiring someone to provide you a service, and you want them to be appreciative? What does that even mean? You engaged in a business transaction, you're not doing them a favor. Beyond that, it entirely ignores the fact that
we probably shouldn't be allowing high schoolers to engage in caddie services simply because the amount of sun damage could have serious health effects later in life, and
we know they don't use the protections they should.
a caddy who proceeds to hand you a club on the first hole that when perfectly struck and hit exactly on the line told to, ends up either out of bounds or in a spot from which the next shot cannot be played from...
Perhaps the caddie over/under estimate's the player's driving distance, and perhaps the player over/underestimates their driving distance. I can see their being caddies that make the wrong calls, but I think maybe the first or second hole isn't the hole to judge them on.
At the end of the day, I think there are very few use cases where caddies should even exist, and in most of the areas where they do exist there are plenty of reason for them unprofessional on occasion. If the clubs/resorts aren't providing caddie services that provide long-term employment with a living wage, then caddie services will effectively be a glorified hobby. If that's the case, people shouldn't be expecting professionalism. This isn't the Victorian era, and I'm a bit weirded out by folks who I see pining for those archaic class dynamics.