BE THE CADDIE, DANNY!
Michael O’Keefe of Caddyshack fame, lives out dream at U.S. Open
Cinderella story.
Winged Foot Golf Club turned into Bushwood for one morning at least when Michael O’Keefe, better known as Danny Noonan of “Caddyshack” fame, carried the bag of area club pro Danny Balin during Monday’s ninehole U.S. Open practice round.
“I’m just here having a blast,” said O’Keefe, now 65 on the 40th anniversary of the release of the epic flick. “I’m hoping the poison I gave his caddy Marc will kick in and they might have to put me on the bag Thursday and Friday.”
Wearing a red Bushwood hat — the original, he says, is “probably in some bar in Davie, Florida” — O’Keefe lapped up every moment, returning to where he caddied for two summers in 1971 and ’72. It’s a shame there weren’t any galleries shouting out a few of the iconic lines from the movie. He gets one more loop today before handing
the back bag to Marc Mondelblatt, Balin’s regular caddie, who walked alongside the two Monday.
O’Keefe, who grew up in Larchmont, explained that the idea “started as sort of a lark but then it got legs.”
“I did a lot of interviews this year because it’s the 40th anniversary of the release of the movie and I knew the Open was going to be here,” he said. “My brother, Billy, is a member here and a former president. I was thinking , ‘wouldn’t it be fun if someone would let me on their bag?’ And I thought the chances of that happening were about as likely as Carl Spackler (Bill Murray’s character) winning the Masters.”
O’Keefe penned a piece for Golf.Com pleading for any player in the field to hire him for the week and he got 50,000 hits on social media. Soon Michael Breed, the popular Golf Channel instructor, got involved. He contacted Balin, his assistant when he was at Sunningdale Country Club in Scarsdale, after Balin qualified as one of the top three in the PGA Professionals points standings.
“The next thing I knew I got a call from Mike Breed,” O’Keefe explained. “He said, ‘hey are you serious?’ and I was like, ‘yeah, why?” He said, “start doing some pushups. I think it’s going to work out.’ ”
“Michael thought it would be a great
thing to do,” Balin explained. “We’re two locals — him growing up here, me being as a club pro and one of the only locals in the field. I thought it would just be great, great for golf, great for the 40th anniversary of the movie and for me personally getting some notoriety in the area.”
Balin, 38, said he watched the movie “maybe 15 or 20 times.” When, as a kid, he caddied at Woodmount Country Club in Rockville, Md., and introduced himself as Danny, the response was often, “You take drugs, Danny?” another classic line from the film.
It isn’t well known that O’Keefe was an experienced caddie when he landed the role as Noonan.
“Gene Hayden (the longtime caddymaster at Winged Foot) was an extremely tough taskmaster,” O’Keefe recalled. “He scared the hell out of everybody. If you got a loop, just calling your name put the fear of God in you.”
He also remembered getting help from the older Black caddies back then.
“They were amazing because they’d been around for years and they really knew the course, they could size up a golfer while he’s taking a practice swing on the first tee,” he said. “They were great with the shortcuts, where you want to drop the bag, where you can save a couple of steps, teaching things about the grain breaking back to the clubhouse, that kind of stuff.”
O’Keefe is also hoping to bring attention to Richie’s Gift, a fund started for Winged Foot caddies by member Bill Fugazy Jr.
“They’re struggling at this time, too,” he said.
He also joked that Balin didn’t lighten up the bag for him.
“He’s got a few dead bodies in there and a couple of memories he doesn’t care for, somewhere in the bottom,” he said.
“I was giving him the whole experience,” Balin joked back. O’Keefe wasn’t complaining. “He’s made my dream come true,” he said.