Ban Caddies

I would like to start a golf poll based on a simple question:

SHOULD GOLF CADDIES BE BANNED; OTHER THAN BAG CARRIERS.

Isn't golf about person against person, on the day of the competition.

Now caddies give exact yardages, read putts, advise on shots, club selection, remind players to think past shots etc etc, I have even seen a caddie decide what club to take and stop the player from taking the shot......!!


Should a caddie be seen not heard, simply a bag carrier, which he was invented for, the rich and famous bag man.

I think caddies are to involved in the game, and the winner should be decided by player against player, not the man with the best caddie.


What do you think?????????


Ian.

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Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

I like the team aspect.

Originally, IIRC, caddies were first available to visitors to the course, to help them navigate around the course (and obviously cart a bag).

Obviously this quickly expanded to members as well (as well as the Tour).

With practice rounds, I think if pro's didn't have caddies, they'd make all the computations themselves. Then, on every shot, they'd reach into their bag, pull out their much-more-detailed yardage book, and take the time to read it.

Honestly, I think without caddies, the game would slow down at the professional level.

Not too sure Ian but i do think that caddies helping to line up players (which you see on the LPGA a lot) should be banned. It almost feels like cheating to me

nick

Overall, I think it wouldn't matter. If the services the caddie provides was banned, players would find other ways to get the info they need.

Also, the relative strengths of the players would not change IMO. Those that are top ten today, will be top ten without caddies as well.

If anything, play would probably only slow down even more. Compare to rally: the co-driver isn't strictly necessary, but allows the driver to drive a lot faster (and safer too).

I love the team sport of pro golf. It IS an advantage to have a caddie but your equally as intitled to grab a caddy yourself? I don't think there should ever be different sets of rules for the average player and the pro player. They might do that for Equipment and that would be bad in my opinion.

The caddy is still not giving you much more information than is already available from the course... Moral Support maybe..? "SKYcaddie" is officially allowed in USGA sanctioned events and official rounds. and you can lay a club down on the ground for alignment and then remove it before you take your stroke.

I agree if you take the caddies away, play would slow. more than the already 5.5 hour average round!!! ... who knows if all those guys can even read.

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iamygod
gt

I would hate to see the 300 or so caddie's lose their jobs. Heh I would vote for employing more people and allow the coaches to consult with the players during the round and maybe even allow the players to station reps at each green to tell the player what the other putts have done from that area of the green. So instead of 1 caddie helping each pro would have a crew of 10 helping

LOL - like a pit crew.

Guys

I must say I am suprised at the response, I thought most of you would be with me, not caddies loosing their jobs but just not allowed to help the player with decision making, times limits still stand as they do now so play wouldn't be slowed, but at least it would be player against player, just as you and I do every weekend in our comps.

I'm shocked.............lol


Ian.

We don't want to ban caddies or stop them from giving advice, reading the lines etc for a very simple reason: we wish that someday we will have just such a caddie

I bet most of us think we could score a lot better if we had caddies as skilled as the ones on the PGA tour... Am I wrong?

Hi Pete,

My point exactly.....................I think we would all score better with a caddie, therefore there is a use of an outside agency....!!


Colin Montgomery in his book claims he could reduce the average golfers score by 5-8 shots if he caddied for them.

This is what propted me to ask the question.


Ian.

[


Colin Montgomery in his book claims he could reduce the average golfers score by 5-8 shots if he caddied for them.

This is what propted me to ask the question.


Ian.[/quote]

I pretty sure that in a book about that Hogan on a bet at his country club did the above, I think he knocked about 10-12 shots off. I would guess that most average golfers problems deal with going for too many hero shots (whether off the tee box or on approach shots)

Now that the USGA has ok'd the use of laser range finders (I know they are not legal professional competitions thus far) I could not agree with you more. They can get their own yardages instantly so they should not be slowing up play. As a matter of fact, I think the players should be required to carry their own bags, makes golf more of a "sport".
The better condititioned players should have an advantage.

The player should be determining their putting line and deciding what club to use without consulting with anyone else. You can't ask a competitor what club he hit, why should you be able to ask your caddy?

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Imagine how boring golf would be if every shot resulted in a hole in one. Perfection is over rated.

Caddies and the owner of the bag they carry are basically a team. Most pros would fail with out the support their caddies give them in a tour event. As for the golfer playing against other golfers, I cannot agree with that concept because the golfer is playing the "course" and cannot be concerned with how the golfer they are playing with is doing. Very few pros will admit to looking at the leader board, since most leave that up to their caddy.

I once heard Fluff tell his man Furyk that he needed a birdie if he wanted to play in Tiger's group the next day. He did, but Tiger won anyway.

A good book is out about Bruce Roberts titled "Caddy For Life". Tom Watson and his caddy were a team. Edwards job was to allow Watson to "just" play golf.

For a recreational golfer, the idea of playing with a caddy when playing a course that requires such, is an adventure in itself.

I own a range finder, and a sky golf instrument, but I always like having a caddy carrying my bag when they are available. They add to the game, no matter what level it is being played at......GJS

Yep, I am of the Showup, Keepup, and Shutup category where caddies are concern. I most diffinitely think it should be a rule violation for the player to recieve help from anybody, including the course marshalls/rules official. Some of these pros have no idea, they ask the rules official what to do, if they don't know, then that is thier problem in my view. Get DQ a few times and they will learn.

Seems like every sport has some type of goofy rules that takes the pressure off the pro, like the DH for pitchers in baseball, I still can't believe that is been going on since 73...jeez, if they can't hit, then why are they there in the first place. Wait until they start that junk in golf.

A DP..designated putter...lmao...you know for them guys that can't putt, they can just hand the caddy the putter and let them putt for them...lol..hell they damm near do every thing for the pro now, why not just take the next step. Will be a sad for golf when they do. They are talking about the range finders, the rules just keep getting more muddled every year. Maybe they can add a circle around the hole, if they get inside it, you get a free putt gimmie, you know like basketball three pointer...lol..or if a guy like haney or tiger drivers to far, they can add weight to his clubs to slow him down, like in horse racing. Goofy rules piss me off, they need to go back to the original rules of golf, make them guys have to chip over thier oponents ball to hole out...lol...now that is golf.

A friend of mine became a professional caddy,he was 6'6" and his stride was yard perfect.He use to caddy for top players like Raymond Floyd.He said his book of yardage's to the tour course's was so accurate he use to sell them to other caddys.
I think if you ban caddies then you have to maybe give the pros some other aid,like a measuring device.Caddies also help their player on the practice round before they play.Like how they are hitting the ball that day.How long they are hitting their irons etc.
I once watched Payne Stewart practice at St Andrews on the course range.He's caddy went through every driving hole,and Stewart hit the required drive for that hole,be it a fade or draw or whatever.The work detail that the caddy would have had to do to map Stewart around that course would have been enormous.There are bunkers every where, hidden from the tee.For players to do this themselve's would be impractical.
The game is hard enough.