Erving McLean reclined on his stoop on West 130th Street near Lenox Avenue, a can of Ballantine Ale in his hand and US$160 in his pocket from a day's work carrying golf clubs at the Blind Brook Club in Rye Brook, New York.
He started caddying at age 12, in North Carolina, and spent many years on the road working for some of golf's biggest names, like Sam Snead and Julius Boros. McLean, now 68, and two of his former colleagues from the pro tour live in Harlem because of its easy access to a wide array of suburban country clubs.
The three caddies, whose decades on golf courses show in their weathered faces, strong hands and good eyes, spend days walking verdant fairways, watching the well-heeled at leisure. Evenings are passed on stoops and streets near the Apollo Theater and Sylvia's soul food restaurant.
"We call this the Harlem caddie shack," McLean said, noting that dozens of other caddies also live in the neighborhood because of its affordability and convenience.
For some, the idea of a caddie may evoke the gang from the 1980 movie Caddyshack, or clean-cut kids collecting pocket change for college. But the mainstay of most caddie shacks is a first-string lineup of veterans like these three, who have worked at little else since childhood. Beyond a strong back, these men offer intimate knowledge of the game and the courses.
The work is seasonal and offers no benefits, job security or pension. An 18-hole round typically lasts three to five hours and pays U$100 to US$200 for carrying a pair of 18kg golf bags, depending on the club -- and the tipper. Payday comes every afternoon on the final green, in cash, which is often spent promptly.
"My best year was 1984 when I won US$84,000 in prize money," McLean said. "But the money always went quick because I never knew how to handle it. I supported five kids and I bought garter belts for plenty of women."
McLean said that he has diabetes and high blood pressure and has had fainting spells.
"Soon as I can start getting a disability check, I'm retiring," he said.
Some caddies migrate south with the birds to work through the winter. McLean and his buddies -- Sam McCray, who still has his white jumpsuit and green cap from his days caddying at Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters Tournament, and Clinton Clifton, 73 yet still known as Sonny -- survive locally off savings, odd jobs and public assistance.
They car pool or take the Metro-North train and public buses to Blind Brook and half a dozen other lush courses in Westchester County, on Long Island or in New Jersey, joining thousands of caddies who work at the more than 200 private clubs within a 120km radius of Manhattan. You can find them among the older set lounging at picnic tables as they await a foursome, playing cards or trading stories of their glory days caddying for famous professionals.
McCray, 65, said he was a regular caddie for Tom Weiskopf, a 15-time winner of the Professional Golfers Association tour and the 1973 British Open champion. He said he was there the day Weiskopf scored a 13 on the 12th hole during the 1980 Masters. That matched the highest score ever on a single hole in the vaunted competition.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Weiskopf recalled McCray as an able caddie who had worked for him on and off. He said that McCray was not his caddie that day at the 1980 Masters, but that "he may have been in my group working for another golfer."
Joe Davis, 72, a member of the Winged Foot Golf Club in New York, said he has known Clifton for more than 20 years and that caddies and golfers, while on different rungs of the country club ladder, often form strong friendships as they age.
"Some of these guys are the same age as me, but they can't retire," said Davis, who retired from Wall Street in 2001.
"It's a matter of opportunity," he said, watching McCray, in his Masters jumpsuit, caddying for a foursome. "I was born 6-foot-4 [1.93m] and white, and he was born 6-foot-4 and black. That's the only difference."
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS