Should Pros Have To Carry Their Own Clubs?

This Caveman happened to overhear an interesting discussion in the parking log at my favorite muni over the weekend regarding caddies on the pro tour, with one guy making his case for doing away with them during competition.

“If golf is truly an individual sport,” he said, “Why should players get the benefit of a bellhop, equipment manager, swing coach, psychologist, and human rangefinder at their side?” Golfers could still consult with caddies leading up to and between rounds at tournaments, but would have to carry their own clubs and be absolutely alone during play. No help picking shots and clubs, or reading the green and wind.

What do you think? Keep ’em or can ’em, and why?

10 thoughts on “Should Pros Have To Carry Their Own Clubs?

  • July 27, 2009 at 4:22 pm
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    Keep them, can you imagine how slow the game would move on TV with them carrying their own bags and no caddie yardage help? Heck, if you want them solo, let them have Golf carts.

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  • July 28, 2009 at 5:39 pm
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    Keep the caddies, spread the wealth, ban all golf carts.

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  • July 28, 2009 at 7:19 pm
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    No way should golfers should have to carry their own clubs. Just walking 4 days in a row and playing the game is hard enough!

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  • July 28, 2009 at 8:58 pm
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    Come now! I play golf about twice each week; walk, and carry or pull my own clubs. Man! I would love to have an assistant to carry my bag, look for all my errant shots, provide advise and encouragement, etc. And golf for me is fun. Not a life’s work.
    In my real world job, I had assistants, advisors, and folks to do research and implement policies. So. leave the pros their help in their career. What a lame idea–carrying their own bag.

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  • July 28, 2009 at 9:50 pm
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    keep them i would like to see anyone carry their clubs in fl in the summer please it hard enough not passing out in a cart you would have about a 10 stroke diff between the 7;00 tee times and the ones who tee off last lol

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  • July 28, 2009 at 10:17 pm
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    Why stop at caddies? Let’s outlaw carts, pull carts, GPS units, and yardage marks on the course! I say this all tongue and cheek of course, but though professional golf is an individual sport, I don’t believe caddies detract from that. Ultimately, the golfer has to line up, swing the club, and execute. Caddies can’t do that for them. Caddies provide golfers with information to assist in the golfer’s decision making process, but the golfer makes the final decision and performs the physical act of swinging…

    Besides, tournaments would be ugly to watch with carts running all over and they would be too slow without caddies.

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  • July 29, 2009 at 12:05 am
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    Junior players have to carry their own bag and evaluate their own shots—-pros should as well

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  • July 29, 2009 at 2:45 pm
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    You carry your clubs and play without help from junior leagues through college until you hit the “pros”. I’m 58 and carry every round and have since I started at age 12. I can play 18 in 4 to 4.5 hours in summer heat and winter cold. “Slow play”? A few penalty’s would take care of that. If they had to carry, I guarantee that the bags would get a whole lot smaller and the companies would be innovating really light weight bags and clubs. Physical conditioning would really come into play. Would it ever happen, not in our lifetimes, but “It sure would be interesting to watch”.

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  • September 10, 2023 at 9:26 am
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    Pro golfers have every thing in their favour except some one walking with them and their caddy in hot weather to fan them. Let pros do every thing for them selves let’s face it what other sport has the spectator assist to find a golfers ball finding it by which he wins the tournament he never would have because highly unlikely to find a ball in rough or trouble and recover left to own resources.How many times do the public find balls for them,kick balls for them how many times do pros get breaks hitting adver boards stopping what other wise would be OOB.How many times do golfers hit public stopping them from going OOB. How many times has the public changed the result of pro tournaments by assisting players enabling them to win ,thus the poor layman who has a bet on a player may be robbed of victory for his player because of out side interference in some cases this could be construde as fraud.How many pro golfers have lost playing privileges or gained them from interference how many people have been hit and stopped platters from OOB.The list goes on let pro golfers think for themselves this is not a team game and they only should carry clubs clean clubs ball check wind whate ever then you would see how has the fortitude to win a tournamen

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