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R&A Foundation
Tales from the links: the enduring legacy of St Andrews caddies
02 Dec 24
3 mins
To understand St Andrews, the Old Course and its impact on thousands of visitors from across the world, who better to ask than the selfless souls who carry the bags?
Caddies live and breathe the links. They walk them every day, meet and greet players of all backgrounds and build up a wealth of anecdotes that contribute to the game’s rich history. Now, their experiences are being researched and documented, with the help of a donation from The R&A Foundation, which is funded by a global philanthropy programme alongside proceeds from The Open. The R&A Foundation provides funding for golf-related projects worldwide, with a special emphasis on five key areas, one of which is heritage. In that category, the aim is to remember those who built golf, celebrate its values and inspire those who will take the sport forward.Portrait photographs
In October, an exhibition highlighting the caddies and their lasting legacy over the last 50 years was held at The R&A World Golf Museum, just across from the 1st tee of the Old Course. Six of them featured, with portrait photographs and oral histories accessible via a QR code. It was a proud moment for Hannah Fleming, Learning & Access Curator at The R&A, who says it was always her ambition to recognise the caddies’ profession. Not only do they enhance the visitors’ experience, they offer a unique perspective of the sport’s unfolding history. “They are a part of St Andrews life, a part of the golf course’s life, that hasn’t been researched in the way other areas of golf history have,” says Fleming. “Within our collection, it’s a piece that has been missing. We don’t have the same material objects for caddies as we do for players and past champions, but what they do is interesting and valuable. They work directly with all the players.” The stories are fascinating, varied and very often funny. One recounts the day a player on the 17th tee hit his drive high above the railway shed and through one of the Old Course Hotel windows. A few seconds later, the room’s occupant leaned out and waved a white towel in surrender.Collaboration project
Some can be humbling and emotional. On one occasion, when a player prepared to tee it up on the final hole, his wife revealed to the caddie that her husband had been diagnosed with an incurable illness and that playing the Old Course was one of his last wishes. “That’s the kind of story that doesn’t often get told,” says Fleming. “But we hear it quite a lot from visitors – about what an impact playing in St Andrews, or just visiting St Andrews, has on them. Everybody involved in golf, whether it’s at the Museum, with The R&A or at St Andrews Links Trust… we see what it means to people. And it’s the caddies who experience it first-hand.” The work is a collaboration with photographer Liam Dickson, who created Scotland Redistilled, a project that shares stories about the development of an industry or cultural movement. His previous studies include one on fishermen from the East Neuk of Fife. Dickson is full of admiration for the caddies. “For a lot of people, St Andrews is a Mecca, and the caddies make the experience special,” he explains. “That might mean helping lesser players to feel good about themselves. Or it might mean showing others how to negotiate a championship layout. They know the course, the terrain and how best to play it in all the different conditions. And they’re dealing with everyone, from royalty to the general public. That has given them a huge amount of experience and people skills.”
Photographer Liam Dickson, who created Scotland Redistilled, a project that shares stories about the development of an industry or cultural movement has collaborated on this work.