Fifty Questions Asked of a Pebble Beach Caddie. James Hudgeon
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we teed off.
By the third hole we were soaking wet. I’m talking, falling out of the boat wet. When there is not a dry piece of clothing on your body, inside and out, wet, your clothes are heavy, soaked from the rain, clinging to your wet body like another layer of skin. You become very cool.
While on the fourth tee, someone went into the beach club for some towels to dry off for the moment. Gene Upshaw took off his coat, so he could swing the club without all the heavy, rain-soaked clothes holding him back. The grips along with the glove were beyond saving, and everything was wet. Gene saw that the ball washer had a small green handy whip hanging on a hook. Gene Upshaw, the NFL player spokesman, knew how to solve problems, and he ripped the handy whip off the ball washer, wrapped the grip of the club, and ripped one down the middle. At that moment Foot and I knew we are earning our money that day.
The wind was in our face, coming down the fairway. Seaweed and foam was blowing in from Stillwater Cove. We were in the eye of the hurricane and playing golf. I had to hold on to two bags. I was not a shotgun caddie, that is, carrying one bag on each shoulder. I put both bags together and carried them on my left shoulder. It just made it easier to work with, although the wind would catch me at one angle and like a sail that did turn and spin me some.
Everyone that comes to Pebble Beach has to play number seven, the short par three off the cliff. By the time we got this far, fighting the wind and rain with the greens full of water, Ray and I we were in deep. These football players were not going in; they were not doing the short way in. But after the eighth green I brought it up. “You know, Gene, we can play off the fourteenth tee here and play in downwind. Gene spoke and I felt like an employee for a moment. “James, you can go in if you like.”
I looked at Foot, and I knew we were getting a bottle and warm up after this loop.
Ray Mednis was a Vietnam vet, shot up by the enemy, lying in the wet rice paddy with bullets flying overhead, with his sergeant shot up, lying next to him and bleeding out. Foot told me his sergeant was shot trying to lift him into the helicopter, which they had too wave off because it was too hot, heavy fire. They had to stay down. So I was out there with guys whose lives compared to this moment in the rain doing something hard but fun. The game of golf was a walk in the park; it was time to man up. Foot loved to tell the story of how my teeth were chattering. I was wet, wet, wet and cold, cold, cold.
Everyone plays the game of golf the same you put a tee in the ground. Grip a club that you believe that this is going to be great, the best shot ever just the way you imagined in your mind. And then you swing and do it over and over again.
But that all changed, Pain Stewart was a master of saving par. Not a lot of going for it on par fives. At the time of his passing his name was on two trophies, the AT&T and the United States Open. Tiger Woods was making his mark on the game, and as Jack Nicklaus said, “Tiger plays a game of which I am not familiar.”
Payne Stewart is one of the all-time greats and the style and marketing with the plus fours outfits was just a part of his greatness. In the US Open at the Olympic Club, he was in the hunt. What a tournament. The ups and downs and the sloop of the eighteenth green, the ball rolling back off the green, and Payne stepping in the line as it rolled back off the green. I felt pretty sad for Payne, but everyone on the course in the final round had to play the same pin placement. Those are the breaks in golf. Later in the day the greens dry up and get faster.
Payne Stewart won the 1999 US Open, and earlier in the year he also won the AT&T at Pebble Beach. I did not think of it at the time, but I’m sure Payne knew that the US Open was going to be played at Pebble Beach the next year. His game was ready and marked out for that upcoming event next year. Later that same year, Payne won the 1999 US Open. Payne’s game was standing up to Tiger’s, and then God reached in and took him.
This should have been the Payne Stewart-Tiger Woods moment at Pebble Beach, the old game and the new game matched up At America’s number-one golf course. Tiger wins both tournaments, first the AT&T at Pebble Beach. That year all the top PGA players played the Pro Am; they know it was a good chance to get to see how the course was before the US Open later in the year.
Tiger wins. He hit shots that people ask where he was here, where was he there. I did not caddie in the tournament that year, but I had one of the best seats on the course. I meet Nicola out on the town, and she told me her grandmother’s house is the first house on the left on hole number four at Pebble Beach.
With parking and everything, my legs were fresh and ready to walk and follow. I got ahead of Tiger mostly around the greens to see Tiger putt. I had noticed that Tiger was hitting the ball where Payne would off the tee. Hole number two played as a par four for the tournament. His length did not overpower the course; Tiger just made a lot of putts.
But the torch was passed that day. Although Tiger won and put his name on another trophy that Payne was the reigning champion, both wins were at Pebble Beach that year. I still believe ball placement and greens in regulation is the best way to play Pebble Beach, for the non-pro trying to play the best round of golf at Pebble Beach.
After the game lost Payne Stewart, more players of all skill levels started to grip it and rip it. Mulligans, do-overs, and the pace of play is through the roof, or should I say off the roof. The clubs, the balls, and even the tees promise more yards. Now it’s okay to go to the gym and get strong, which was a no-no before Tiger. If you were over six feet tall, this game of golf is not for you. Yes, the game has changed, for better or worse is not the question.
I remember asking Casey Boyes in the cart barn one morning as we were waiting to go out on a loop about Tiger Woods and what he thought of the game that Tiger plays. Casey was one of the senior caddies at Pebble Beach, and if you played golf in California in the amateur circuit you knew that Casey Boyes is a two-time state amateur champion, and you also knew that the tournament was played at Pebble Beach, his home course.
Casey’s answer was short and to the point and has proven to be correct. The game has changed, and I guess every great player knows what Casey knew. Casey’s answer was lower scores; the players are going to have to go lower too keep up with Tiger. When the world was trying to figure out how to lower their scores, along came the Tin Cup movie.
Looping in the AT&T golf tournament at Pebble Beach is a great time; everyone is happy and loose. It’s a big party with celebs everywhere, with happy fans all around—some sober, and of course some fans not so sober or on their best behavior. The Super Bowl just ended Sunday; let’s keep the party going.
This one year I was in the same group as Kevin Costner. His last movie release was Water World. I had not seen the movie, but in the background noise of the gallery I heard some things about the movie, mostly about the cost of the movie and the return at the box office.
Later I did see the movie Water World and I liked it, but it did not have that Kevin Costner moment, like the postman on the horse and the kid reaching for the mail; I called that moment while watching the movie. Maybe in Water World that moment was when the flare was dropped in the oil and as it was falling the old man said, “Oh thank God,” and then boom—end of the bad guys.
Kevin seemed none too happy about the chatter coming from the peanut gallery. He tried and did his best to make some money off a film, but it just didn’t work with this one. Payback is a mother; Kevin came back right after the game of golf and its fans with Tin Cup.
From the start of the movie, to the end of the movie, from the best players, the worst players, the gadgets, the teaching pros, the bars, and the drinking and gambling, all the stuff golfers love, he even covered the caddie and his like-minded friends—all of it, and no one saw it coming. But I did, soon after the movie.
Come on, man, lay up—no, I can make this shot, and there you have it, my Kevin Costner moment—the end of a four-hour round of golf as we knew it. Golf no longer was about the pace of play and doing the right thing on the golf course to help others enjoy their game. Slow play is a golf course killer.
People started to wait on the tees, in the fairways, out of bunkers 225 yards away from the green on their second shot on a par 5. It was crazy. After that movie, my caddie job also went like in the movie