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Augusta Nationwide is a spot the place golf historical past lives and breathes. As you stroll the course, it’s as if probably the most iconic photographs within the Masters match’s 87-year historical past are all occurring concurrently. You stare down the second fairway and you’ll virtually see Louis Oosthuizen’s famous double eagle unfolding in entrance of you. There’s the spot on 10 the place Bubba Watson hit a duck hook out of the pine straw to achieve the inexperienced in a playoff. The spot the place Larry Mize holed out on 11. The place Tiger chipped in on 16. Then there’s 18, the place Jack Nicklaus secured six green jackets.
But it surely’s while you depart the course—while you stroll off the 18th inexperienced, previous the place Tiger hugged Charlie, previous the Massive Oak Tree, previous the professional store, and means down on the far aspect of the driving vary—that you simply’ll discover one of the vital peaceable, most magical locations in golf.
Augusta’s caddie shack.
“The caddie shack is the place to hang around,” says Scott Vail, a Masters veteran caddying for Keegan Bradley on this 12 months’s match. “All of the gamers, the households, the coaches, the physios—everyone desires to hang around with [the caddies] that week. Which is humorous as a result of . . . that’s not regular.”
Usually, Vail says, the gamers keep of their locker room, and the caddies, who aren’t allowed in, don’t linger. However in 2010, when Augusta unveiled a brand new 400-yard-long driving vary, it included the huge new caddie facility. Particulars are sparse, as a lot of Augusta’s operations are veiled in secrecy, together with its top-secret members record, which reportedly consists of Warren Buffett and Invoice Gates. What we do know is that the brand new Golf Companies Constructing, because the shack is formally identified, shortly turned the caddies’ favourite place on tour, the epicenter of behind-the-scenes Masters motion, and maybe the good hangout in golf.
“It’s the closest we get to feeling like a golfer”
The elevated caddie expertise on the Masters begins the second the looper steps out of the automotive. Usually, Vail says, he’ll arrive at a membership 45 minutes to an hour early, dressed and able to work, and dive straight into his yardage books.
Not on the Masters.
At Augusta, Vail arrives in a T-shirt and health club shorts. Within the locker room, he has a customized locker arrange for the week. His white jumper is hung up, along with his participant’s identify on the again, ready for him.
“You’re feeling such as you’re the athlete,” says Vail. “For us caddies, it’s the closest we get to feeling like a golfer.”
“It’s the one week of the 12 months the place you actually get handled like kings,” Paul Tesori, a Masters veteran who began caddying on the tour in 2000, told the Caddie Network. “We’ve obtained the identical guys who handle us yearly, they usually ask me how I’m doing . . . It’s sort of that space the place you inform your self, This feels totally different.”
Solidifying it as the good dangle in golf, the caddie shack has loads of seating, a number of TVs, and a kitchen with an open menu, although most persist with the normal rooster strips and fries or go for the burger or steak sandwich.
“Every part’s heightened,” says Vail. “Guys are available in two or three hours early to take a seat, dangle, and have a chew to eat. And while you’re performed together with your spherical, they’ve all the time obtained a beer poured for you. The service is six-star.”
For many of the day, the caddie shack is a peaceable place tucked removed from the grandstands, media, and Masters mania. A spot the place caddies congregate and golfers come and go from the adjoining vary. The place the beer is chilly and the tempo gradual.
On the course, it’s a unique story.
“Whenever you depart the vary and get out to the Massive Oak Tree that everyone gathers beneath and the place all of the patrons are, swiftly [the sound] simply hits you,” says Lance Bennett, a 20-year veteran who’s working Tiger’s bag on this 12 months’s match. “It’s like a very totally different world over there. It’s like a tennis participant strolling out to middle courtroom or a soccer participant popping out of the tunnel.”
As soon as he’s on the primary tee, it’s the participant’s battle in opposition to the hype, historical past, and strain of the Masters that’s usually his largest battle.
A practice in contrast to another
The key to success at Augusta, in line with varied caddies, is to deal with it like another match.
The issue is, it’s not.
“Each participant is totally totally different on the Masters,” says Vail. “They’re on edge. The Masters brings out totally different sides to gamers. It’s a tense week.” Along with being the primary main of the 12 months and probably the most elusive for among the sport’s greatest (taking a look at you, Rory McIlroy), the hype surrounding the match is unmatched within the sport.
“There’s a lot happening and so many distractions for a participant,” says Joe Skovron, a 15-year veteran who now caddies for Ludvig Aberg. “The household’s there. All the chums wish to come. You’ve obtained all of the businesses, firms, and sponsors which are there that week. You’ve obtained celebrities. You look within the crowd and there’s Josh Allen. There’s Peyton Manning. Condoleezza Rice is a member. In order a caddie, you need your man to simply go play the golf match and go play the perfect he can. However there are such a lot of distractions, so there’s all the time that fear.”
The hype across the Masters is a part of the explanation there have been so many epic collapses at Augusta, particularly Greg Norman blowing a six-stroke lead on Sunday in 1996 after main the three earlier rounds.
“That’s your one concern,” Skovron says. “How will we simply go play golf and never put an excessive amount of [pressure] on it? How will we maintain this a golf match and simply concentrate on enjoying the golf?”
The golf itself at Augusta can be uniquely troublesome. Its greens are famously sloped and unforgiving, usually torturing gamers earlier than they’ve even left the tee field.
“It’s one course the place a caddie can actually assist,” says Bennett. “As a result of the course performs in such a novel structure, it’s all about the place you miss at Augusta Nationwide. In the event you’re a participant who doesn’t know all these little nuances, a caddie who is aware of the place the nice misses are across the greens can actually assist.”
With 35 years of Masters expertise between them, Tiger and Bennett took an early journey to Augusta practically two weeks earlier than the match for a refresher.
“I’ve by no means taken an early journey with a participant till this 12 months,” says Bennett. “That’s a testomony to [Tiger’s] effectivity and the way he prepares. He’s clearly one of the vital mentally powerful gamers ever to play the sport, and I’d say his golf IQ may be very excessive. However his preparation is second to none.”
The harder the course, the better the preparation required. Augusta doesn’t have an official slope score, which measures a course’s problem. Whereas probably the most troublesome programs have a score of 155, panelists have estimated Augusta’s rating someplace between 135 and 144.
And as troublesome because the course is to play, it’s simply as troublesome to navigate.
“It’s in all probability the hilliest golf course we stroll,” says Brennan Little, who received the Masters with Mike Weir in 2003, and is on Gary Woodland’s bag this week. “You’ll be able to’t see it on TV, nevertheless it’s a really, very troublesome stroll.”
Augusta all however settles the “Are golfers actually athletes?” debate. The hill on the No. 8 at Augusta alone is akin to climbing seven flights of stairs. The steep drop from the No. 10 tee to the tenth inexperienced is about 110 feet. “You could possibly actually ski down it,” says Vail. With such drastic adjustments in elevation, strolling Augusta Nationwide is identical as strolling roughly 40 flights of stairs in each instructions; so, the roughly 9,176 yards (5.5 miles) that gamers stroll in a given spherical might exhaust even the perfect athletes.
That doesn’t cease many caddies and gamers from dubbing the Masters their favourite occasion.
“We all the time rely down the times,” says Vail. “That Wednesday is the fifth-best day of the 12 months. Thursday’s the fourth-best day. And then you definately rely all the way down to Sunday at Augusta, which is the perfect day of the 12 months.”
Studying Augusta
However earlier than you will get to Sunday, you want to survive the primary three rounds. Along with the hype, the hills, and the hoopla across the match, the course can provide gamers nightmares.
Holes 11 and 12 at Augusta—two of the three holes that make up the enduring Amen Corner—are famously troublesome.
“The scariest gap for a caddie is 12 as a result of the wind swirls via there,” says Skovron. “You’ve seen a variety of nightmares there. So, for caddies, I believe a variety of occasions 12 is the one you’re respiration a sigh of aid while you get via it.”
“It’s such a shallow inexperienced on 12,” says Bennett. “It’s not very deep, nevertheless it’s very broad. So getting the depth notion and getting the gap appropriate is troublesome, particularly with the wind. Due to all of the bushes behind it and round it, that wind will get bouncing round just a little bit. So you will get some bizarre wind gusts, and that makes it a caddie’s nightmare in the case of selecting a membership.”
Whereas gamers have seen their share of nightmares on 12, it’s hardly the one gap at Augusta that haunts gamers and caddies alike.
“I believe 5’s exhausting,” says Little. “It’s a tough-fitting tee shot, and it’s obtained an enormous mound within the inexperienced. There’s not a variety of good locations to overlook.”
Vail, in the meantime, says the Par 3 at No. 6 is uniquely troublesome.
“I simply dread it,” he says. “The wind’s all the time like swirling all over. I’ve been there quite a few occasions the place the man in entrance of us hits a seven iron, and we hit the identical membership and we go over the inexperienced. That’s all the time been a gap that may actually make you look silly as a caddie as a result of every time it’s a nasty membership and the ball’s going over the inexperienced, it’s all the time the caddie’s fault.”
The course might give each gamers and caddies suits at occasions, however in line with Vail, the caddie’s major function—particularly at Augusta—isn’t membership choice, however managing the participant.
“It’s a tense week,” he says. “So what I’m attempting to do is simply alleviate strain or the stresses that the participant places on himself. I attempt to be jovial, be myself, and have enjoyable and throw in jokes. You’ve obtained to alleviate the strain and maintain issues unfastened to your participant. You’ve obtained to be the spine.”
And caddies can money in on being their participant’s spine at Augusta. Usually, caddies receive a weekly wage of between $2,000 and $4,000, relying on the caddie’s expertise (that helps cowl journey bills to Augusta, which caddies are accountable for). In addition they earn a proportion of winnings. The 2023 Masters had an $18 million purse cut up amongst 50 golfers, $3 million greater than the earlier 12 months. Jon Rahm, the winner, earned $3.24 million whereas the runner-up, Phil Mickelson, took dwelling $1.944 million. For the winner, the caddie’s reduce is mostly 10%; for the runner-up, it’s 7. All different caddies earn a 5% reduce. However whatever the match, percentages and stipends are usually negotiated between participant and caddie.
“Everyone has just a little bit totally different deal that they work out with their participant,” Skovron says. “It’s not fully uniform.” The 2024 purse shall be formally introduced this weekend and is predicted to be near final 12 months’s.
Sunday on the caddie shack
Whether or not you’re a participant or a caddie, until you’re enjoying within the ultimate group otherwise you’re in line to win, your Sunday at Augusta seemingly ends within the caddie shack.
“It’s the custom yearly on Sunday while you’re performed together with your spherical,” says Bennett. “There’s a number of TVs in there with the protection, and also you’ve obtained in all probability 30, 40, possibly 50 individuals sitting there watching it. At that time, it’s late within the day they usually often have the lights off so you possibly can see the TV. And it’s a number of gamers—however largely caddies—simply sitting round, having a beer, and simply watching the top of the match.”
Vail remembers watching the 2011 Masters within the caddie shack, as South African Charl Schwartzel birdied the ultimate 4 holes to finish an inconceivable comeback.
“It was the perfect Masters I’ve ever seen,” he says. “We had been performed and caddies had been coming in and the boys had been feeding us beers. I had two of my greatest associates from Toronto down to observe it within the caddie space.”
With Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day each in rivalry, a divide shaped within the caddie shack—Aussies and people supporting Scott and Day on one aspect, South Africans and Schwartzel supporters on the opposite. The shack went silent for every strategy and erupted after every shot, echoing the grandstand a number of hundred yards away.
“There was some hootin’ and hollerin’,” says Vail. “It was particular, simply the time and the camaraderie I had with two of my greatest associates and sharing that second.”
Two years later, a type of associates with Vail that day handed away from mind most cancers.
“That’s a big reminiscence to me,” he says. “That was my final actual cool second with him.”
Vail is again at Augusta this 12 months working Bradley’s bag, hoping to make one other Masters reminiscence. Skovron is on Aberg’s bag, Little on Woodland’s, and Bennett is strolling alongside Tiger as he appears to tie Jack Nicklaus’ file by successful a sixth inexperienced jacket. Every will relish the second, focusing totally on supporting their participant. In any case, Little says, the participant is the one making the photographs.
“All of us have to comprehend that the participant wins the golf match, not the caddie, proper?” he says. “I’ve received two main tournaments—let me take that again . . . I’ve been concerned in two majors. I take pleasure in that, and I believe it’s nice. However on the finish of the day, the participant wins the golf match. Some caddies are significantly better than others, however the line, ‘What makes caddie is displaying up on the primary tee with participant’ is fairly true.”
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