Mark’s Kaddy Korner

2011 PGA Tour Crystal Ball

Seems like this time of the year every golf pundit, prognosticator, fan, player, and caddy are making their predictions or telling everyone, “I’m sure this or that is going to happen.” Picking golf scores or tournament winners is a lot like predicting the weather. There’s a lot of scientific knowledge available for analysis but if too many putts lip out instead of dropping it’s going to be a long season for anyone inside the top echelon. In the mid-90’s Peter Jacobsen went from 88^th on the money list to just outside the top five the next year. Johnny Carson asked him late one night, “What was the difference?”

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and all are looking forward to a wonderful New Year. Since my last Kaddy Korner I’ve acquired a new hip, spent the last three weeks slowly rehabilitating the muscles surrounding the titanium blend ball in my hip socket and making sure the plate bolted to my femur didn’t twist or break. Just after surgery, December 7, carrying a bag seemed like a long way off.

Flying back from Florida last week I stumbled into an amazing person. We literally fell against one another as we were boarding the plane. I was limping toward my seat and he was doing the same heading for the seat next to me. My condition is temporary; he’d been living with his disability since he was twenty years old and left for dead in Vietnam.

 Jon Hovde was missing his right arm and leg but not his smile and zest for life. We chatted for awhile and I forgot how tired I was. The northern Minnesota native told me bits and pieces but promised he’d send me his recent book Left for Dead: A Second Life after Vietnam. It’s waiting for me in Florida and the first I’ll read after surgery.

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Champions Tour Q-School, TPC at Eagle Trace, Coral Springs, FL

Driving across Alligator Alley Saturday morning I was thinking about the 7 or 8 Q-Schools I’ve attended over the years and only successfully graduated from one. There were three final stages on the PGA Tour, two on the Champions Tour, and a few second stage visits. I wouldn’t consider myself a grizzled vet at these things but seen enough to know no one really wants to be here. They are a necessary evil for struggling tour pros and a glimmer of hope for club professionals and low handicap amateurs.

Caddying Comes Full Circle

Next week I’m heading for TPC at Eagle Trace in Coral Springs, FL. Twenty-two years ago last March I was pulling into a parking lot ready for my first job on the PGA Tour with Phil Blackmar. There were no houses, no trees, and not many roads, nothing surrounding Eagle Trace except the Everglades to the west. I haven’t been there since 1991, I’m sure things have changed but thinking about that first week sure conjured up memories.

AT & T Championship – Champions Tour – San Antonio, TX

Albert Warren Tillinghast created Oak Hills CC in the early 20’s, back then it was perched on a hill about ten miles north of San Antonio. The city has grown up around it but his masterpiece is still one of the finest courses the Champions Tour visits. The traffic is horrific but once behind Oak Hills’ walls and shady oaks lining the tight fairways the golf is exquisite. The PGA Tour played the Texas Open on this short, shot-makers course until 1994 when it out grew the track and sponsors enticed the tour to move to LaCantera, a resort course most caddies despised.

Kaddy Korner – Administaff Classic – The Woodlands, TX

The day and half Houston drive was relaxing and uneventful; those new tires are nice now it’s time to get the air conditioner fixed. I was looking forward to the week at The Woodlands. Bob was playing good, I was going to shack up with Todd’s (Watson’s caddy) brother Paul, watch a bunch of baseball, and play our way in to the Schwab Cup tournament. Bob only needed about $80-90,000 for the top thirty money winners event and I liked our chances.

Constellation Energy Championship

Our last major, the Constellation Energy Championship at the TPC at Avenel in Potomoc, MD started out cold, rainy and miserable Monday. I was walking the Jim Hardy redesigned course, adding sprinkler heads to my yardage book because the course was playing long, wet, and difficult. My first thought was a few of the old boys may not finish this week, my second was would I? My last trip here was 1991 and I forgot how hilly the course was, it was going to be a long week.

Ensure Classic at Rock Barn CC & Spa – Hickory, NC

Heading west on I-40 from Cary, NC John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” droned in my head. Hickory, NC is the smallest town supporting a Champions Tour event but the gallery lining the fairways is deeper than L.A., New York, Chicago or any other metropolitan tournament. The fans are supportive, appreciative, and cordial and have more fun during their tournament week than any other tour stop. Driving into town signs are everywhere, “Welcome Champions Tour Players and Caddies.”

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SAS Championship – Cary, NC – Champions Tour

The two day drive to Cary was uneventful but very memorable. Passing through Indianapolis there were thoughts of Murph’s second win at The Broadmoor, Dad made the earlier morning drive for the Sunday round, we were rained out but he saw the trophy presentation. There were six or seven years of family fish frys the Huber family provided for the Senior Tour when we played at the Speedway. The last year we fed 175 players, caddies, family and friends in the Motel 6 courtyard.