December 11, 2020 | BY AAGD STAFF
Former basketball player-turned golfer Taneka Sandiford Mackey finds herself in a unique situation working as the first Bahamian (Black) female caddie on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour. Although she is enjoying the exposure and travel of her trade, by doing so she is sacrificing her own dreams of playing professionally on the LPGA.
Sandiford Mackey, 25, hopes her caddy role with American pro golfer Amy Olson will last a long time. The two have tread many fairways together since Olson first asked her if she would caddy for her after her own coaching (basketball) season ended. The two reconnected in 2018 at the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic.
“I caddied for her six times during that summer,” said the humble athlete in an interview with Tribune242.com. Since then, the duo has played numerous venues throughout the USA, and the world, including Australia and Hawaii.
Olson, who graduated from North Dakota State University is a North Dakota resident and played her LPGA rookie year in 2014, having qualified on her first attempt. She has a career earning of $1,613,666. She claims it was Sandiford Mackey’s wide, friendly smile that drew her in—accompanied by her professional demeanor on-and-off the course.
Although Sandiford Mackey LPGA player dreams are deferred, she’s just as elated to be by Olson’s side and seeing the world as a professional caddy.
“Hopefully this will open doors, not just for me, but for other Bahamians, especially golfers to get on the tour,” she pointed out to TheTribune.com.
Sandiford Mackey started playing golf at 10-years old and then, with the Bahamas Golf Federation’s junior program. She continued to play in college and says that she hopes to put all of the experience that she has gained to good use. The 5’8″ standout credits her father, tennis coach Juan, for inspiring her to go out and give it her best shot in everything she does.
Her BeRecruited profile states her winning the Bahamas National Championship five times and coming in second once. Because of this she was able to play throughout the Caribbean in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Bahamas. She also had the chance to be the youngest player on the Bahamas National Women’s team going to Barbados. She also Played in the Jr. British Open and won the Bahamas President Cup.
“I want the other Bahamians to look up to me because if I work hard and I excel, I know others will be able to follow me,” she stated. “So it’s a humbling experience to be the first Bahamian female, but I hope and pray that it doesn’t start and end with me.
When she got started playing at the age of 10, she enjoyed the sport so much so, until she went on to play in the Bahamas Golf Federation’s junior program. Incredibly, she went on to make the national team in just six months in the sport. She continued to play at the collegiate level while attending St. John’s College. But even then, her love of basketball was still a priority and her skills helped the Giants to win four championship titles.
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Following her 2011 graduation from St John’s College, Sandiford Mackey went on to play basketball in Florida for one year where she was the MVP before she transferred to the Redwoods Community College. There, she helped her team finish as the NJCAA National Golf Championship runners-up in 2013 and third in the regional tournament in 2014.
Attracting much notice for her athleticism, Sandiford Mackey obtained an athletic scholarship in 2016, enabling her to complete her education at Chicago State University, where she placed 13th at the Loyola Fall Invitational and the CSU Cougar Classic.
This turn of events is what led to her back to Redwoods Community College where she served as an assistant coach and was introduced to her role as a caddie.
Becoming a Professional Caddy
Sandiford Mackey must indeed be proud of her accomplishments as a dual graduate she holds an Associate degree in business administration and elementary school education from Redwoods Community College and Bachelor degrees in business management and Spanish. Sandiford Mackey said she doesn’t regret passing up basketball: “I would have loved to continue playing basketball and eventually going on to play in the WNBA. I felt I had the potential to do that.”
pros, @talley_emma, @tiffjoh, @leelo03 volunteering at the @oregonfoodbank during the week of the 2019 Portland Classic
“But I’m glad that I decided to stick with golf because now I have the opportunity to caddie in the LPGA. I don’t know if I would have made it to the WNBA, but I can say I made it to the LPGA as a caddie.”
Sandiford Mackey said she has witnessed much negativity towards women in sports, but she hopes that she her efforts in the game can help to change that stigma.
In speaking with Tribune242.com, she pointed out “I got my opportunity through the United States as a caddie….I am glad that I am able to achieve this much at such a young age, but this is just the beginning,”
On Nov. 1, 2018, Taneka Sandiford Mackey went for a jog around her neighborhood in the Bahamas. She got miffed around the 1.5-mark when she started to feel tired. She looked at her watch at 5:12 p.m., and that’s the last thing she remembers. Sandiford Mackey, a 24-year-old who played basketball and golf in college, began having a seizure in the middle of the road. Fortunately, the next car that turned onto the street was being driven by a nurse.
In 2018, a morning jog around her Bahamas neighborhood resulted in a seizure and being rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered 20-plus lesions on her brain, and three months later the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, a disease that impacts the central nervous system, for which there is no cure.
“During the entire time I never once cried,” said Sandiford Mackey, “never once asked ‘Why me?’” Following the diagnosis, Olson and Sandiford Mackey’s first tournament together was in Australia. Today, the two are good friends, professionally and personally, and together they make a great team.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates that nearly 1 million adults over the age of 18 in the U.S. are living with MS. Women are two or three times more likely to be diagnosed. Sandiford Mackey said those who grow up in warm-weather climates are less likely to get MS. Her African American ethnicity makes her an even more rare case.
For now, Sandiford Mackey knows that she cannot control what happens and she is focusing on her work as a caddy. “If I think about what could possibly happen, I would miss out on what’s happening now.”
