The Caddy

I went to play golf with my caddy yesterday and she cleaned my clock. Let me back up and explain. When I was playing golf Sunday night, as we were waiting for the group ahead, I saw my caddy swinging my club as she was waiting to hand it to me. Her swing was picture perfect….normal you say for someone who works on a golf course everyday. Wrong. These caddies never play.

Let me tell you about the life of a caddy. They live in a shack near the course with no running water, electricity or any of the other conveniences we have come to enjoy in the west.They make about $5 a day from the golf course if they get a chance to caddy…unlikely since there are more caddies than there are golfers, and whatever tips they are able to make when they do work. The tips are traditionally $7 a round so the most they can make in a week is $84 and that is working every day which most of them do not get a chance to do.

Because my caddy works at night ( my golf course is open at night), I asked her if she wanted to play golf the next morning, thinking it would be quite a treat for her. She agreed after much cajoling on my part since she said she never played before. I picked a small little 9 hole course around the corner from her golf course and said I would meet her there at 9 am.

The first thing I noticed was how she covered herself was with long sleeves, hat, umbrella and the works. White Thais can’t stand the thought of themselves getting dark. After renting golf clubs we began. Her first shot was on the green but she took two puts from there to put in the hole. The first one just lipped out. It went on similarly from there and I did not win one hole on this course with holes between 100-150 yards and lots of water on all sides of the green.

The point of my story is that in Canada, she would be getting a golf scholarship to an American university somewhere and she would be the next Tigress Woods. We are so lucky to be living in Canada where there is truly lots of opportunities. If she was in Canada, who know? She would probably be married, hopefully, and have lots of opportunities to play if she wanted to.

Instead, she is living in a shack, watching hacks like me play, and I would imagine leading a rather dismal existence. Of course, it is not for me to judge the quality of her life, but I know as a marshall at Clublink, I found it deadly dull. Just another small example of why I think we are so lucky to have had western opportunities. This lady was a truly remarkable athlete who would be rewarded in any western society in which she lived. In Thailand, she is lucky have a job working as a caddy!

By the way, you can be sure I will never play with her again. Can you imagine getting cleaned by a person who never played before? It either tells you about my abilities or her remarkable skill. I prefer the latter interpretation Walter.