About ten years ago, I volunteered to be a caddie at the U. S. Women's Amateur. In the previous two years I had caddied at the U.S. Public Links and U.S. Junior Girls, both at courses I was pretty familiar with. Given that I had positive experiences with both of these volunteer experiences, I opted to try it again.
The Women's Am was at Eugene Country Club which I played several times many years before, in the late 70s.
I arrived on Friday and the woman I was assigned to was arriving Saturday. The previous year she won the Canadian Women's Am. On Friday I walked the course backward, looking at each hole from the green to note fairway locations which afforded good lines into greens, and then checked visuals into the greens from these spots and noticed where they were in reference to tee boxes.
It turned out her length off the tee was similar to mine, so the course set up for her approximately like it did for me.
She had two practice rounds and shot 69-73 to finish fifth in medal qualifying and won two matches before losing to a woman from Spain who went on the win a couple of times on the LPGA.
I found the experience of walking the course backward very helpful. On the other hand, showing up, keeping up, and shutting up may have been my main contribution.
Charles Lund