August 10, 2020
Entering August, Tony Shuster had caddied for 20 days in a row at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. He totaled 847,000 steps during the month of June and another 789,000 in July—upward of 800 miles in all.
Shuster is one of almost 350 caddies shepherding golfers around the six 18-hole courses at the remote, walking-only destination along the Oregon coast, which has the biggest caddie corps in the nation. While the veteran looper estimates the percentage of guests taking caddies is about 10 percent less than normal at Bandon Dunes since its mid-May reopening, business has still been brisk even if it’s a bit modified—from no rakes, pulling pins, and foam inserts in the cup to a slight uptick in forecaddies or group caddies who typically don’t carry bags.
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But while golf has been booming (every state in the continental U.S. had a healthy year-over-year jump in the number of rounds played in June, for example), some caddie programs remain shut down or scaled back. In the initial stages of the coronavirus outbreak, a host of organizing golf bodies, at both the state and national level, recommended a complete restriction on the use of caddies. Interestingly, some parts of the country today report an increase in caddie use.
Still, questions remain whether caddying should be a part of golf—particularly below the professional level—as the pandemic rages on.
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“It’s our job to safely guide our golfers from the first hole to the 18th hole,” says Shuster. “If that job has to do with the pandemic, like everything in today’s world, that’s something we can do safely and do every day. I don’t see any reason for caddies to be cut out. You need service people, no different than a waiter at a restaurant. Bandon Dunes is essentially its own bubble—its own windy bubble.”
Read more at LinksMagazine.com
