By Paul Pradia
(July 7, 2015)
The 2015 US Senior Golf Championship was held at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, California. There were 152 players— 27 of whom were amateurs. There were no Black players present and only three Black caddies, one of whom carried the bag for one of the amateurs. I had the pleasure of chatting with two of the Black caddies, the one who caddied for the amateur, and Freddie Burns who caddied for Tom Pernice Jr. Freddie was a seasoned caddie; he had worked for Hal Sutton for 37 years before retiring in 2014. The other Black caddy worked for Brad Bryant; neither of these professionals was expected to win the championship.
Jeff Maggert, the winner of the event received $675,000. With the typical earnings for a week’s work, his caddy probably received $67,500 which is 10% of his Pro’s earnings. Now—it seems in this era—that is just TOO much to pay a Black Man “without a Ph.D.” for one year, let alone one week (7 days) for carrying a golf bag. Brat Bryant earned $69,518 for finishing tied for 13th and Tom Pernice Jr. earned $16,385 finishing tied for 39th. Now 10% of that is more like what a Black man earned annually and weekly, respectively, when all of the Caddies at the Masters were Black and each participant had to hire one of them.
When The PGA eliminated the Caucasian Only Clause from the PGA’s rules book (1961), it opened the door for Charlie Sifford and a large number of other black players, and Caddies, to work together on weekly basis—sometimes on National Television.
There was Lee Elder, Pete Brown, George Johnson, Curtis Sifford, Jim Dent, Jim Thorpe, Chuck Thorpe, Rafe Botts, Teddy Rhodes, Charles Owens, Nate Starks, Jimmy Walker, Bill Wright, Walter Morgan, Henry Carl Baraben, James Black, Cliff Brown, Howard (Lefty) Brown, Lee Carter, Gordon Chavis, Al Green, Al Morton, Adrian Anthony Stills, Bobby Stroble, Ron Perry, Tom Woodard, Willie Brown, Al Cotton And Dick Thomas. La Ree Sugg, Althea Gibson, Renee Powell, Cheyenne Woods, and Sadena Parks have played, or are still playing, on the LPGA Tour.
Photo: Caddie Carl Jackson with Ben Crenshaw.
Approximately ten of these PGA Card holders played regularly on the tour while the remainder played satellite tours and became Monday qualifiers occasionally. Each of these players had black caddies. However black caddies didn’t just work for black players. Some of the Hall of Famers had black caddies throughout their careers: Gary Player (Rabbit); Lee Trevino (Herman Mitchell) and Ben Crenshaw (Carl Jackson). Future Hall of Famers Calvin Peete and Hal Sutton also had black caddies.
John Shippen, the first Black Professional to play in the US Open Championship at Shinnecock Hills started his golf career as a caddy.
There is probably not a single black golfer who did not show some racial pride when Calvin Peete lined up his putts with his caddy (Golf Ball Hall) peering over his shoulder when he captured his biggest prize: The Tournament Players Championship (sometimes referred to as the 5th Major). I spoke with Mr. Hall (widely considered the best reader of the greens among all the caddies) asking him why he didn’t write a book on how to read the greens. He simply said “I’m not going to give them my secrets.”
When Tiger Woods made his grand entry into the professional golf world, the golf prize money quickly escalated to millions of dollars. In recent years, the top 100 players on the PGA Tour earned more than $1,000,000 per year. Tiger was the leading money winner on the tour, 10 of the last 17 years, earning more than 70 million dollars, His caddy’s earned in excess of 7 million dollars. Thus the demise of the black caddy. Players started to hire their wives, brother-in-laws and college team mates who were not fortunate enough to earn PGA Cards.
More than 100 black men—with less than a Ph.D.—carrying a golf bag for a living, earning more than $100,000 per year, not including corporate outings and non sanctioned PGA Tournaments.
The caddy may begin to think he is more important than the player and start talking about his most rewarding win.
Simply Not Going to Happen in America.
Paul A. Pradia is a Certified Golf Teaching Professional and avid golf enthusiast who resides in Elk Grove, CA.
