An Old Caddie Looks Back

Reflections from a town that loves golf… and Tiger

From the author’s foreword:

Golf empowers.  That’s the main message of this book.  Much of the action takes place in Rockford, Illinois, a community that has been one of America’s most supportive golf towns for generations.  While Rockford embodies fundamental practices that can lead to golf flourishing anywhere, it also serves as a case study in how to keep the game healthy and strong.

An Old Caddie is the first serious attempt to dig beneath the surface of Rockford’s golf story.  It is a memoir from my perspective, not a comprehensive history, and while my experiences and conclusions are shared by many who have contributed to the game in town, much is left unsaid here and should be the subject of future stories written by others.

My focus runs from the late 1940s through the early sixties and then picks up again in 1989.  That’s when I meet Earl Woods and his thirteen-year-old son.  A life-long Rockford buddy of mine, Bill Stark, had by then become a regular playing partner of the Woodses and introduced me to them.  As guests of Earl, Bill and I attended the 1998 Masters where Tiger was defending champion.  During that April return to a place we experienced decades earlier, we discussed the benefits of bringing Tiger to our old hometown.

Rockford is not only aware of the threats that can diminish the impact of the game, it is committed to addressing them.

Much of my story concentrates on Rockford’s values as they relate to golf.  When I was a kid, the community was not a welcoming place for racial minorities who wanted to play the game.  Now it is.  This transformation became a focal point of my thinking in the book’s early development, and caused me to look back and anew at my past half-century of golf, and America’s.

The perspective I gained as a young caddie in the 1950s turns out to be powerful in retrospect.  Caddying at one time was a step on the ladder toward upward social and economic mobility for countless youngsters in Rockford and beyond.  Caddies see the empowerment of golf close up.  They also witness sportsmanship, etiquette, good swing habits, bad swing habits, temper tantrums, four-letter words, and a cross section of other behaviors that in the final analysis offer a net benefit.  The disappearance of caddies from all but a few elite private clubs has diminished the opportunities of contemporary young aspiring golfers.

However, the disappearance of caddying is not the only challenge for those of us who want folks of all ages to taste a bit of the potential empowerment of golf.  And here’s where my old hometown impresses me the most: Rockford is not only aware of the threats that can diminish the impact of the game, it is committed to addressing them.  As a callow young fellow generations ago, I thought that Rockford had to be one of the best communities when it comes to golf.  I still do.  Maybe the very best.