Although I never caddied as a regular looper at the same course, I was fortunate to get a bag at the 1978 Kansas Women’s Amateur, to get my caddy feet wet. I played golf at the time, so I at least didn’t do anything stupid, but I do not recall how my player fared in the tournament.
But the best thing about caddying in the KS tournament was that I was able to list that experience on my application to caddy in the 1983 U.S. Women’s Open at Cedar Ridge in Tulsa. I was really happy to be selected as one of about 40 local caddies, who were assigned players who came to the event without a caddy. I would have been happy to get to caddy for the champion of the Northern Alaska Amateur if that is who I was assigned to.
I was assigned Jane Lock, an Australian women who won the 1981 Australian LPGA Championship. She played lights out and was near the lead after the first two days. I was in way over my head, especially as I was lucky enough to be the ONLY local caddy whose player made the cut! Remember, I would have been doing this for free, because it was so much fun to be inside the ropes. The rest of the local caddies were offered positions as fore caddies, which I thought was a nice gesture by the tournamnet organizers.
On Saturday, Jane Lock, with me as her wide-eyed caddy, was in the next-to-last group and was only a few strokes out of the lead when she made a hole-in-one on #15. My friends who were watching on TV all gave me grief for months after they saw Jane Lock jump into my arms and wrap her legs around me and give me a big kiss! She was quite excited, to say the least….. My wife even understood.
Sadly, she faded on Sunday and finished something like 8th or 9th to the eventual winner, Jan Stephenson. It was her high-water mark in the US golf scene, and I was thrilled when she wrote me check for $140 for six days of work. It was the most fun I had ever had on a golf course.