Mark Hamilton walked across the street from the 18th green to the Briarbrook Country Club pro shop carrying a full-sized golf bag filled with clubs.
That seemed appropriate since Hamilton has been a full-time and part-time caddie on the LPGA, PGA and Nationwide (formerly with the buy.com and Hogan) Tour since late in the 1980s and is planning to return to the men’s tour in April.
Now a seasoned veteran of the professional golf tours, Hamilton knows the “ins” and “outs” of being a caddie as well as what’s expected of him.
The job is more than carrying about 45 pounds of woods, irons and a putter, golf balls, rain gear and other equipment for five or so miles a day, often in blistering sunlight or unpleasant cold and rain.
Being a regular looper (tour slang for a caddie) requires that Hamilton know where to stand on the green or in the fairway, how to read greens, give accurate and detailed information on distances and trouble spots, know the distances his player hits each club and, perhaps most important, when to talk and when to stay silent.
A caddie is part friend, part computer, part psychologist and part cheerleader for his pro. He also can be a handy whipping boy when things go sour.
He also must know the rules of the game.
“When I went out for the first time in 1987, I didn’t know anything,” Hamilton said. “I was out there about five weeks and I felt intimidated so I came home.” It wasn’t the player for whom he was working, but a lack of knowledge and experience that caused his discomfort. His pro that year was Therese Hession. She eventually played in more than 250 LPGA events and has been women’s golf coach at Ohio State for 18 years.
Mark went back full-time in 1988 after getting some advice from Boyd and Blaine Cornwell, Joplin brothers who have been caddying on the tours for many years. They also are Christian evangelists and singers who conduct services at churches near the tour stops and, on occasion, for players and their caddies.
Hamilton also learned quite a bit from a caddie called “Carl The Machine,” who was working for Patty Sheehan at the time.
Still, while all of the information shared by the Cornwells and “The Machine” was helpful, it wasn’t the same as learning on the job.
“For the in-depth stuff, it was a hard-knocks road,” Mark said.
Hamilton worked for Diane Dickman for five or six tournaments in 1988 and then hooked up with Meg Mallon for the rest of the year. It was Mallon’s first year on tour.
“We started in Virginia,” he said, “and we went to the Women’s Open in Five Farms, Md. We finished probably in the middle of the pack. She had a pretty good record that year. I think she made 11 or 12 cuts in a row. I kept busy.”
After that he worked for a few others, including Lynn Connelly and Mary Murphy. He caddied for Murphy for about a year and a half. “She had a vision problem,” he recalled. “I had to read every putt for her.” That’s when he learned to read putts.
In 1990, Mark was on the bag of Jeff Cook at the Hogan Tour in Springfield when Cook beat Olin Browne in a one-hole playoff at Highland Springs.
On the PGA Tour in 1993, Hamilton carried the bag of Dennis Trixler. Ironically, Trixler eventually wound up as the caddie of Tom Lehman when Lehman won the Disney.
Mark took a few years off after that and returned home to Joplin. But the lure of the tours drew him back in 1999.
Last year, he caddied for Rich Barcelo after the player’s caddie was injured. It was at Omaha on the Nationwide Tour. Barcelo birdied three of the final five holes for a one-shot victory.
“I’ve really enjoyed it,” said Hamilton of his experience as a professional caddie. “It’s been such an adrenaline rush. You’re in a special community of players and caddies.”
A few weeks ago, Hamilton got a call from a player who had earned conditional status on the PGA Tour, meaning that he is not a full-fledged member of the tour but may get chances to play in an event here and there. They’ll hook up in Georgia late next month.
Who knows, this youngster might be the next Ricky Fowler.
Swing lessons
Mark carries a respectable nine handicap at Briarbrook. But he is self-taught. Most of his swing is the result of watching the swings of “the class players” over the years. At least as far as full swings go. His short game is strictly home grown. “My short game was developed at Schifferdecker,” he said. “I would drop a bunch of balls near a green when no one was around and practice.”
The pros do that, too, on practice days.
Nicknames
According to Hamilton, pro caddies often get their nicknames by doing something wrong.
“One caddie was looking at his yardage book as he walked down the fairway and kicked his own player’s ball,” he said. “That cost his player two strokes. Everyone started calling him ‘Pele.’ The same guy was working for someone else and pulled out a compass to check. That was a penalty, too. Now he is known as ‘Due North.’”
Hamilton’s nickname on tour is Greenvan. That’s because the players and caddies somehow found out he used to drive a 1978 green van. “That’s what people called me,” he said. “A lady even wrote a check to me as Mark Greenvan.”
Benefit
American Legion baseball will be beneficiary of the 16th annual Carl Junction American Legion Post 781 four-person scramble scheduled April 17 at Schifferdecker Municipal Golf Course.
An 8 a.m. shotgun start is planned. Entry fee is $200 per team. Entries should be mailed to Charlie Long, American Legion Post 781, P.O. Box 165, Carl Junction, Mo. 64834.
Deadline for entries will close April 12.
