Two golfers, four competitors.
That will be the norm for match-play action at next week’s U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay Golf Links in University Place.
The stars will be the players themselves – guys such as reigning British Amateur winner and world No. 1 Jin Jeong, top American Peter Uihlein, recent Western Amateur champion David Chung, even defending U.S. Amateur titleholder Byeong-Hun An, the youngest winner in the event’s 110-year history (17 years, 11 months).
The unsung competitors will be the caddies.
Some will come in with the golfers – usually friends, family members or coaches. Others will be supplied by the United States Golf Association, men and women who have walked the mounds, fairways and greens of Chambers Bay long before this championship arrived.
“For the players, once they get a (Chambers Bay) caddie and find out how knowledgeable we are, some of them will let us be very involved,” said Fife’s Chris Ming, one of the venue’s most experienced caddies. “Or, they’ll just make us take the bag off his shoulder for a 61/2-mile hike.”
The caddie fleet at Chambers Bay numbers 120 men and women, with varying levels of experience.
Some like Ming have assisted golfers on the PGA and Nationwide tours. Others have strictly been club caddies, locally and elsewhere around the country.
“We’ve had people contact us all the way from The Old Course at St. Andrews (in Scotland),” said Brian Haines, the caddie manager at Chambers Bay.
At previous U.S. Amateurs, as many as 60 to 70 home-course caddies have been hired by golfers for the week of competition. Because Chambers Bay is only in its third year – and located in the remote Pacific Northwest – that total next week could be as high as 85.
Before the tournament opens for practice rounds beginning Saturday, an entrant can directly contact the USGA to request a caddie. It’s then the 56-year-old Haines’ responsibility to match the two parties based on the golfer’s requests and personality, and the ability level of available caddies.
“I’m familiar with every single caddie we have – their abilities and skill level,” Haines said. “Only the highest skill-level guys we have would caddie in the U.S. Amateur.”
Once the tournament begins, if a golfer wants to hire a caddie on-site, it will be by random draw.
Ming, a former mini-tour player, caddied for Tacoma’s Troy Kelly last season. He has been at Chambers Bay for a couple of years.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, he was asked by Uihlein to join him and feed him as much information as possible about the course, including about the new tees and undulating greens.
Uihlein will bring his own caddie – an Oklahoma State assistant – next week. So, too, will golfer Charlie Saxon, but the teenager’s family has hired Ming for the two practice rounds as a forecaddie, giving the personal caddie a full scouting report of Chambers Bay and The Home Course in DuPont.
“For the tournament, I’ll wait and see,” Ming said. “What’s happened in years past, somebody (a golfer) will be looking for a caddie when they originally didn’t want one, or need one. Or there will be somebody who didn’t like their first caddie, and is looking for somebody else.”
The USGA sets the daily base fee for a caddie at $50.
“For these caddies, it’s not about the money,” Haines said. “It is about caddieing in the U.S. Amateur. It’s an experience of a lifetime.”
