PGA Tour caddies know nothing lasts forever

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Being a caddie on the PGA Tour is like being a coach in a professional sport. For both, their days are usually numbered.

''Every caddie says they're just a future ex-caddie,'' Lee Janzen said.

''The caddies are used to it,'' said Richard ''Jelly'' Hansberry, a long-time PGA Tour caddie. ''The player calls the shots. It's his bag to do what he wants to do with it.''

Most player-caddie teams don't last more than five years. The reasons for parting range from lack of compatibility and communication to job performance to a simple need for a change.

''A player gets in a slump and he looks around and the caddie is right there,'' Hansberry said. ''He probably feels he's the first one he takes it out on.''

Ernie Els and Ricci Roberts were a team for seven years until Els discontinued the relationship last year.

''We had some great times together, won a lot of big tournaments, including two U.S. Opens,'' Els said. ''But last year we started to irritate each other. I just thought, I need a change of caddie, a fresh person on the bag.''

The good caddies, such as Roberts, end up with another strong player eventually. Roberts recently started working for Nick Price after Price split with Jimmy Johnson, his caddie for nearly four years, in early March. Johnson now caddies for Jean Van de Velde.

''I thought the chemistry wasn't quite there,'' Price said. ''Jimmy did a great job for me. We're still good friends and will be friends for a long time.''

'I've split up with caddies because it was the right thing to do because I didn't want to mess up the friendship,'' Larry Mize said. ''I'm better friends with them now.''

Most golfers agree there are two secrets to a successful player-caddie relationship: compatibility and communication. Those are the reasons Hal Sutton has been with Freddie Burns off-and-on for 20 years and Tom Lehman has been with Andy Martinez for eight years.

''You want to blend personalities and complement each other,'' said Martinez, who caddied for Johnny Miller in his prime. ''There are certain people I couldn't caddie for even though I think I'm an excellent caddie. There are certain personalities I couldn't mesh with.''

If the caddie isn't doing his job - pulling yardages for shots, recommending club selections and keeping his man positive - it doesn't matter how much compatibility there is. He'll soon be looking for another job.

Martinez is such a good caddie that Lehman credited him for helping him make birdie on the tough 11th hole during the second round of the Masters last week.

''He's a huge help,'' Lehman said. ''I thought it (his approach shot) would be a hard 7-iron that would end up short of the pin. He said, 'No, take the 6-iron, you're not going to go long.' He convinced me the wind was hurting enough where I could hit a solid 6-iron.

''I did, and it ended up an inch away from the pin. Things like that, he's very helpful in putting me in a real comfortable zone where I can take a swing at a ball the way I want to.''

Good caddies are also part psychologist on the course.

''It's very important in the scheme of things for him to say something positive,'' Hal Sutton said. ''That helps change your attitude. We all have little stretches where your attitude gets bad.''

Steve Williams' positive attitude is one of the many reasons Tiger Woods is happy with his caddying. They've been together for just over a year since Woods split with Mike ''Fluff'' Cowan.

''Steve's very positive and upbeat,'' Woods said. ''That's something I truly like about Steve. He's so positive out there on the golf course. If I'm not playing well, he knows exactly what buttons to push to get me going.''

Those buttons ''are between Steve and I,'' Woods said when asked to elaborate.

''A caddie is almost like a jockey,'' Price said. ''He has to know when to pull the reins and know when to give it some whip, when to give the horse a bit of stick.''

A caddie must be able to read his player's mood and react accordingly, Price said.

''A caddie can't get too excited or too depressed,'' Price said. ''If the player is down, he's got to be up. If the player is up, he's got to be down a little bit. You want a calming influence and a kick-in-the-backside influence.''

Being a caddie is not a difficult job. Being a great caddie is very difficult. Steve Elkington has grown so close to his caddie of five years, Joe Grillo, that ''I almost consider him family, though I don't yell at him like I would my brother,'' Elkington said. ''He takes care of my children. We have a great relationship.''

So do Janzen and David Musgrove, the man who carried Sandy Lyle's bag when Lyle won the 1988 Masters. This is their seventh year together, though they split for the last quarter of the 1999 season.

''He went home after the PGA Championship (in August) last year and I didn't know if he wanted to come back this year,'' Janzen said. ''He had a good rest. I had some time at the end of last year too and it was helpful for me too. We both came out this year refreshed and ready to go.''

Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.