Why do visitors to GB&I feel the need to hire a caddy?

[Thomas Dai]

Comments herein often refer to visitors to GB&I hiring a caddy.

No disrespect to visitors or caddies but I’m curious to know why visitors feel the need, the need, the actual need, to do so (I appreciate that very occasionally it may be compulsory).
I and likely other GB&I residents herein have played dozens and dozens and dozens of GB&I courses of all sorts of different types without ever feeling the need to hire a caddy.
Just curious.
Atb

[John Handley]

Because most of us are playing 9 rounds of golf in 8 days and walking.  Some people don't walk at all on their home course all the time.  Sometimes it's about the experience with a caddie and sometimes it's about not lugging the bag around.   To each his own.


I got caddies at Royal St George's and Sunningdale and carried my own at West Sussex, Huntercombe, and Hankley Common.  It was  perfect for me, which is all that matters. 

[Pete Lavallee]

I believe John nails it’s, playing multiple rounds in a small time frame when most are used to playing in “buggies”. Let’s face it, most are on a trip of a lifetime and can afford to blow some extra cash. Although I agree that caddies are unnecessary at most UK courses you’de be foolish not to take one at TOC!

[Brian Finn]

While I may be in the minority among visitors from the US, I rarely hire a caddie.  Normally playing 36 per day, I do often use a trolley, as carrying for so many consecutive rounds seems to take a toll, but mostly, I like to do as the locals do (in as many ways possible).  In ~100 rounds in GB&I, I think I have taken a caddie for about 10.  In some cases, I felt it would greatly benefit me to see the course for the first time with a caddie (e.g. The Old Course, Prestwick), in other cases I felt compelled to do what the trip organizer had arranged (e.g. took the same caddies for all rounds in St. Andrews first time there).  Having been the organizer myself for most of my trips overseas, I always offer to book caddies for the friends with whom I am traveling, but my core group is of similar mind in this regard.  I love having a caddie and have had almost all wonderful experiences with caddies, but look at it as a luxury, and not one that I require for most rounds.  Give me a course guide (if available) and point me to the first tee.

[JohnVDB]

I agree with Brian on this.  The only time I took a caddie was the first time I played TOC in 1988.  I get a course guide partly to help on the course and partly as a keepsake.

[Dan_Callahan]

I've never hired a caddy on my trips to GB&I. I'd rather carry my own bag and figure out the course for myself. Only time I wish I had one was the first time I played Carne, and somewhere in the routing I had no idea where the next hole was. Teed off and got halfway down the fairway before I realized I was on the wrong hole.

[Jason Thurman]

The Old Course is an interesting test case, as always. I played it without a caddie last summer, and I really enjoyed plotting my own path around it with the yardage guide (and with the assistance of having walked it the day before). So many people who play it come back and say things like "All the holes run together" or "You never really know where you're going" - that kind of thing, and I wonder if it's partly a function of a caddie directing them about so they had less need to evaluate and interact with the architecture.


I'm probably overthinking it, and it's probably more a function of the course's low-lying visuals. But if I recall correctly, I think Mark Saltzman once described being a bit disappointed by the course. He'd had a very straight driving day, and so the caddie told him where to hit it, and he hit it there, and he coasted around pretty unintimidated and just found it sorta uninteresting as a result.


I'm considering a round at Chambers Bay in a couple months, and I found an old thread here last week where someone said "You'll be totally lost out there without a caddie." I can say that once you've navigated The Old Course and enjoyed it caddieless as a first time player, sentences like that always sound a little ridiculous.

[John Connolly]

Need is too strong a word - it's something I want to do. Some of my fondest memories of GB&I golf have been the time with my caddies. I enjoy their company, humor, typical good nature, their stories, the added local color, and just having something taken off my plate. When I travel across, I'm seeking many experiences, not just the golf.

[JohnVDB]

From being around other players with caddies, I sometimes feel like when I’m on a distillery tour.  You hear a lot of the same stories and jokes repeated every time.

[Mark Chaplin]

It’s the same plate of food and bottle of wine whether the waiter puts them down in front of you with saying a word or a good waiter and sommelier describe them to you. However I know which enhances the experience more.


At Royal St George’s with it’s blind shots, false fronts, hidden bunkers, etc I’d say a good fore caddie is well work the cost to a pair or foresome.

[Steven Wade]

Playing a round of golf with a caddie is something I enjoy. My home club requires them most of the time anyway, and so I’m used to it. There are times that I like to zoom around my home course with a trolley, but courses I’m less familiar with, a caddie can elevate the experience. Is your aversion to taking caddies financial or that you enjoy playing without one more?

[Mike Bodo]

I haven't been to the GB&I yet for a golf trip, but as is the case at a number of premiere golf resorts in America, do some clubs/courses require you take a caddy? When I was at the Pete Dye course at French Lick recently a caddy was required even if all four players in the group were riding in carts. I think certain clubs/courses do it for pace of play purposes, as you could spend a lot of extra time looking for balls, the location of the next tee, determining the type shot to play and or club selection if new to a course. An experienced caddy eliminates much of that and makes one's first experience at a course more enjoyable I'd argue.

[Dan Boerger]

Honestly ... to support the club and community.


When you think about what I have (or we have) spent to get to these clubs it seems to me the right thing to do to get the top experience.


Last summer, I played Lahinch, Waterville, Tralee, Old Head, Ballybunion and Portmarnock. Except for Portmarnock, I had played all other courses more than once. Took caddies at every course.


I also recently took caddies at St. George's Hill, RSG, Swinley and Sunningdale.


Again, right thing to do methinks.

[Eric Smith]

This past week I played two rounds on the Old Course, one with caddies and one without. I enjoyed and appreciated my caddie greatly. So much so we stuck together over the course of two days, including a super windy day on the Jubilee. Great fun!


My second round on TOC last week wasn’t planned as I was invited last minute by a friend who happened to be in St Andrews at the time and was playing with their friend, an R&A member. I couldn’t have enjoyed that round more and I’ll tell you it was partly due to the fact that I was free to play any shot I wanted! There were times the day before when my caddie would simply not allow me to play some of the shots I wanted to play (!) directing me to opt for the more conservative play. Guess I’m too nice to argue.

[Ira Fishman]

Need is too strong a word - it's something I want to do. Some of my fondest memories of GB&I golf have been the time with my caddies. I enjoy their company, humor, typical good nature, their stories, the added local color, and just having something taken off my plate. When I travel across, I'm seeking many experiences, not just the golf.

+1. In addition, we typically have had caddies who are members of the club. They are proud of the course and give us insights/lore/history. I also enjoy learning about them and their families. More than once we have ended up in clubhouse for a beer or a bite. When we played NB a few years ago, my caddie was Catriona Matthew’s husband. He caddied for her for many years on the LPGA tour. She grew up playing NB, and they live just off of the 18th tee. A great guy and hard to beat his knowledge of the course or his stories about the tour. A couple of weeks ago my caddie at Rosses Point has a son who was a leading Irish amateur and our caddie at Lahinch is playing in the South of Ireland later this month. As John says, caddies are not a need, but most often enhance the day.


Ira

[Kalen Braley]

Thomas' question sort of begs the question and I honestly don't know here.

Is there ever a time a reasonable** caddy request is made, and the club either doesn't want to fulfill it or only does so begrudgingly?

(** Unreasonable perhaps being a very large group, paying premium fees and they demand fully caddy support)

P.S.  I would agree with the above that if buggies were made more widely available, I suspect there would be less demand.

[MKrohn]

Coming from down under, caddies are rarely if ever used. Having them foisted upon me in the US has been underwhelming, perhaps because I have played 000's of times without them I find the experience a bit jarring, particularly the double bagging.


That said, we all had a caddy at TOC but it was only because we all agreed and unfortunately were likely never to be back.


Ironically I got a guy from the US, albeit he had been in St Andrews for many years.

[David_Elvins]

Comments herein often refer to visitors to GB&I hiring a caddy.

No disrespect to visitors or caddies but I’m curious to know why visitors feel the need, the need, the actual need, to do so (I appreciate that very occasionally it may be compulsory).
I and likely other GB&I residents herein have played dozens and dozens and dozens of GB&I courses of all sorts of different types without ever feeling the need to hire a caddy.
Just curious.
Atb

You may be underestimating how many of these visitors play most of their golf at their home courses with a caddy. 

[Bill Gayne]

Part of the lore for Americans of golf in Scotland and Ireland are the caddies. The vast majority of American golfers have very little opportunities to have a caddie so on the trip of a lifetime splurge on the caddie and come home with a good story or two for the grill room. The same caddie may say the same line every day but it gets told again and laughed at in many different grill rooms.


After the trip of a lifetime, your buddies will ask "how were the caddies?" and you don't want to answer with "well I didn't want to spend the money" or some other cockamamie story that no one believes but leads to the conclusion of being cheap.

[John Handley]

Most of the guys I send over to GB&I love taking caddies.  It's part of the experience.  They also gamble a fair bit and if the caddie helps at all, he's paid for himself.


Years ago, my Dad and I spend 4 days at Turnberry and had the same caddies for the whole time.  On Sunday, as we finished our round and were saying our good-byes, the senior caddie insisted to my Dad that we join them at the local pub.  We accepted and went to meet them.  They gather at the pub on Sundays with their whole family.  The caddie also paid for our beers and would not take no for an answer.  Pretty f'in cool if you ask me.


It's ok if you don't want or need to take a caddie.  But appreciate that there are others out there who need a caddie or want a caddie as part of the experience.

[MCirba]

Dan Boerger,


+1000

[Stewart Abramson]

I'm not clear about why the original question is framed in terms of visitors to GB&I. Visitors playing high end US destinations such as Pebble, Bandon, Streamsong, Kiawah, Pinehurst, Sand Valley, Forest Dunes, TPC Sawgrass etc often take caddies.


I've visited golf courses in GB&I while in my 50's, 60's and 70's. I usually walk with a trolley, but as others have said when playing 8-10 rounds in a week a caddy is a welcome addition to the round. I probably take a caddy 1 or 2 rounds out of ten, most often for the second round on a 36 hole day.  Caddies were really helpful and added to the experience on my first rounds at Prestwick and TOC.

[Craig Sweet]

Not meaning to hijack the thread but why would you play 8 rounds in 9 days when there is so much to see and do that isn't golf?

[Stewart Abramson]

Not meaning to hijack the thread but why would you play 8 rounds in 9 days when there is so much to see and do that isn't golf?

Just speaking only for myself, most days are one round days so that leaves many hours per day to see and do things that aren't golf and to interact with local people. Do you really think a round a day leaves no time to experience the local culture? If we have an 8 am tee time that will leave from noon to midnight to do other things.  I also do non-golf trips with my wife and another couple where the focus is solely on the local food, culture and history.

[Kevin_Reilly]

I am the one who is guilty of bumping a decade-old thread ("Has a caddie ever ruined a round for you") a few weeks ago (after my terrible caddy experience at Ballybunion), but I regret the fact that it has prompted something like the cavalcade of "best caddy one liners" and "worst caddy rounds" and this "why do visitors hire a caddy".


My apologies to the DG.  Hire a caddy and don't feel a need to explain yourself.  Or carry a bag and do the same.


Most of the caddy stories/one liners in my experience are apocryphal.