FanNation

Picking up from my last post entitled "Tiger Woods Made Me Look Like a Genius," I'd like to recount a story of the time I caddied for PGA Tour player Jerry Kelly at the Newark Boys and Girls Club Pro Am at Somerset Hills Country Club in New Jersey a few years back.

It was a last minute assignment for me. As one of the more veteren caddies at SHCC, I got to caddy for a tour player every year in this pro am. This year, I was originally going to carry Carl Petterson's bag, but he had to bail out at the last minute. Fuzzy Zoeller, the tournament "host," was able to get Jerry to fill in at the last minute and I got the assignment.

He was a pretty cool guy. A little "edgy," i.e., "I'd rather be home with the kids than here with a bunch of muckety-mucks," but he was a good sport until we got to the 7th hole. On this long, difficult par 4 (the number 1 handicap hole), Kelly pulled his tee shot into the left rough about 140 yards from the green. Facing a tough approach shot, he knocked his 9 iron to about 2 feet when two younger guys approached him and asked, "Hey Jerry, did you hit that a little thin?" To which Jerry, incredulously replied, "I just hit a 9 iron 140 yards stiff, and you want to know if I hit it 'thin?' Welcome to 'effing' New Jersey!" 

Finally, on the back nine, I made the mistake of walking forward to the regular men's tee (while Jerry and the gallery went back to the newly installed pro tees, which I had never seen before). So I'm waiting there looking down the fairway waiting for Jerry to "show up" at the tee when I see coming over my head, his University of Wisconsin badger head cover which he had thrown at me. So I turn around to see where it came from and there's Jerry with the gallery cracking up at me and he announces, "my caddy's killing me!" They started roaring with laughter while I wanted to crawl into a hole. He later apologized and told me that he was just having some fun with me. 

He made it up to me after the round by giving me a nice tip and a dozen Titleist Pro-V1 golf balls.