The Importance of the Pinehurst Caddies
Willie McRae, a caddie who worked at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club for more than seven decades and hosted the U.S. Open this week, was a beloved figure who went out of his way to help his players.
“My dad always said his job depended on the tips he got,” said Paul McRae, his son who is a golf instructor at Pinehurst Golf Academy. (His father died in 2018 (at 85.) “He would come home with holes in his pocket so he could drop a ball for a golfer. The other guys would say, ‘Man, you play real good when Willie’s around, but not when Willie’s not around.’ He knew how to make players feel good.”
Pinehurst is the birthplace of American golf. Donald Ross, one of the most prolific golf course architects, lived in the town and tested course design ideas at the club. But it also plays an underappreciated role in American caddying.
Once a profession that was looked down upon, caddying has gained respect over time. It is now an integral part of the experience at golf resorts around the world. After all, there is no one else who spends five or six hours with guests as a guide, psychologist and storyteller.
“At the last U.S. Open, Justin Rose came in early and took my dad to No. 2 so he could read the greens for him,” McRae said. No. 2 is the championship course. “My dad caddied for Ben Hogan. Hogan would ask him, ‘Where do I aim for?’ My dad would say, ‘Aim for that tree.’ Hogan would say, ‘What part of the tree?’
Two years after the first Open at Pinehurst in 1999 – this is the resort’s fourth – Pinehurst recognized some of its most famous caddies with a hall of fame. Willie McRae, Fletcher Gaines, Robert Robinson, Jimmy Steed, Teddy Marley, Robert Stafford, Hilton Rodgers, John T. Daniel and Jeff Ferguson were among the first group of nominees in 2001.
In addition to being a course designer, Ross was also the resort’s caddymaster and recruited men from the community.
“The caddying game at Pinehurst is thriving for a number of reasons, including the fact that caddies are part of the Pinehurst tradition, Course No. 2 is immediately walkable and the curious design of the greens makes their local knowledge worth several times over. strokes a lap,” Lee Pace wrote in his 2012 book, “The Golden Age of Pinehurst.”
Yet the Pinehurst caddies are less known than their counterparts at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Augusta required golf professionals to bring a club caddy for the Masters tournament until 1982, and that rule made golf stars out of men like Carl Jackson, who caddyed for Ben Crenshaw for decades and was with him for both of his Masters victories.
“The Augusta caddies developed this niche as a great Masters caddie pool,” said Ward Clayton, author of “The Legendary Caddies of Augusta National.” “Augusta is known for its mysterious greens. But Pinehurst has a similar feel with those inverted-saucer greens that Donald Ross built. Players are a little bewildered by those greens. A caddie was like a coach on those rounds.”
This week, few players will show up without their regular caddy on the bag. But for anyone who does, the go-to guy is Thomas Trinchitella, who caddied for Tiger Woods during the practice rounds before the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst, and Rory McIlroy before the 2014 US Open. He is a bridge between the past and present of Pinehurst’s caddying history.
“I got to caddie with Willie McRae a little bit toward the end of his career,” Trinchitella said. “When you heard those guys in the caddie room going back and forth about who’s the best green reader, who could play this hole better, it was funny. They were the veterans. People loved them.”
One important thing has changed over the decades: the money. McRae quit caddying and started working the night shift, his son said. The winning caddy at the US Open earns 10 percent of the $3.6 million first prize.
