Caddie Chronicles: From Augusta to Azerbaijan, Our Man Duncan Brings 2014 to a Close

(Continued)

In a lazy sort of way, it is always nice to come back to a course you've already caddied in the past as there's a lot less pre-tournament work to do.

But there was no escape for me this time as I had to convert the entire yardage book from yards to meters for my European boss. This is an arduous five-hour task that starts with a bottle of whiteout and a conversion chart and ends with a yardage book that looks more like the dog's breakfast. But by Monday afternoon I had the book converted and the course walked.

I was ready for Gonzalo's arrival at 7:30 the next morning.

The practice round was spent writing down where the wind was coming from, how hard it was blowing, and how far he was hitting the ball. By the end of the day, I had a pretty good idea on how far each of his clubs went.

Next was to find out his likes and dislikes. Each guy you work for is different and you have to tailor the way you caddie to fit those differences.

Gonzalo is a very affable fellow, but he has a bit of a temper that makes him hold on to those bad shots sometimes a little longer he should. With a guy like that you need a “go to” topic of conversation to help distract him.

For Gonzalo, that's topic is hunting and I was able to employ it successfully on several occasions to extract his brain from a couple of plugged lies. But the important thing to know about Gonzalo I found out in our first nine holes. On our 6th hole, the short 15th, we hit half a club too much and to compound that mistake the ball landed on a sprinkler head on the side of the green and bounced right over the back into the bushes.

It ended up in such a bad place that he was forced to play the shot one-handed. He duffed the chip then bladed the next shot onto the green followed by a two putt. As he walked off the green, I heard him say to the score keeper “that's a seven for me.”

I said to him on the next tee “how do you get seven out of that?” He said “I hit myself with that one handed chip shot”.  

No one in the whole world but Gonzalo knew that that ball had hit him. For me this is what golf is all about! A true gentleman.

It wasn't a great ball striking week for my boss but I can tell you that man has one of the best short games I've ever seen. And that's saying something! It certainly isn't difficult to see how he's won tournaments all over the world, and I'm sure it won't be long before he adds a PGA tour event to that list.

We finished 51st in the end and Gonzalo pocketed $14,445 which earned me a nice little percentage check as well. We didn't get rich but we didn't go broke either.

Charlie Hoffman was the man that took the trophy home, but for me the two players that really carried the day were the two Mexican invites in the field. Carlos Ortiz and Oscar Fraustro both finished tied 9th, earning themselves a healthy $141,000. Somebody gave them a chance and the two of them took full advantage of it. Well done to them.

Sunday evening was spent with all the caddies on the famous 5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen. The next morning everyone was heading off to the four corners; some as far as Australia and New Zealand and some just back home to await the start of the new season in Hawaii.

But in the mean time, the beer was flowing and so were the stories. As I decamped in the wee hours of the morning, I did so with a little sadness in my heart, wondering when next would I see this collection of loveable rogues.