My key bits of kit? A compass, a laser and a few sticks
A bagman cannot leave anything to chance as he and his boss prepare to take on a new course
Like many caddies at the Open Championship, this week will be my first look at Royal Portrush. I’ve visited the town twice – once for Darren Clarke’s wedding and again sadly for his wife Heather’s funeral – but have never set foot on the course.
Walking into the unknown is a familiar experience for both player and caddie as they travel the world, and there are all kinds of routines among the weird and wonderful characters who populate the tours.
Some always want to play two full practice rounds and put a shift in, others are more relaxed and happy with a quick nine to get a feel for things.
A caddie’s job is to acquire enough information about the course to enable your boss to play with confidence and conviction, and to trust your own decisionmaking in the pressure cooker that could come later in the week.
I like to get there on the Monday and spend four hours or so walking the course. I will start by trying to find out our lines off the tee, particularly important at links venues that can pose more blind drives and less definition compared to parkland courses.
The alignment sticks the players use on the range are a useful tool, and I put them in the fairway at different distances: 270 yards, 280 yards, 290 yards and so on.
You are trying to determine exactly where the middle of the fairway is and from there you make a note of a target in the distance the player can use to aim at back on the tee.
The shape of a fairway is another thing to think about: where is it widest, where is it tightest, where do we want the ball to land and where do we want it to finish?
Much of the preparation is about identifying the spots to avoid, often marked down in my yardage book with a cross or a simple “s---”.
On links courses this tends to be the bunkers and you’re putting a cross or a tick next to each one. One bunker might be dead and you are coming out sideways or another one might be shallow so you can afford to be more aggressive. It’s not the end of the world if you go in it.
Likewise with the rough – it is never a uniform length and
thickness all over the course. You keep an eye out for which bits are thicker than others and seeing how far you can advance it.
It will be different for different players, of course. There might be a bunker at 300 yards that Rory Mcilroy can carry and somebody else cannot. You are picking out lines and strategy your player will feel comfortable with and you stick to that game plan.
You are certainly looking around the greens and the firmness of the course. You might have to adapt to how the course is playing. At Muirfield in 2013 drives were running 100 yards, but another year it might only be running 10 yards.
Around the greens, much depends on where the pins are cut. There might be a bunker that’s a no-go in one round but to another pin with more room it’s fine, and you will be drawing circles on the yardage book to try to remember certain slopes and undulations.
We have a fair idea of where the holes will be cut, so players will spend a lot of time putting to tee pegs in the ground and looking at how putts break and the speed of certain greens.
Compass points and wide sheets help us analyse the conditions. When playing a practice round, you’re constantly making notes that could pay dividends later in the week: what club did he hit, how did the ball run out upon landing, what was the temperature like? You might play a practice round on a warm afternoon but be out at 6.30am on Thursday and that changes how far the ball travels.
Every caddie has a laser rangefinder now – in the old days I was using rope and a wheel the council used for measuring roads.
You learn by your mistakes over the years and try to avoid making those simple mistakes.