Caddie Network

Caddie fun in Vegas, a LPGA player’s GoFundMe for her looper, a show of support for Korea’s Bio Kim and more

T.J. Auclair
A bunch of our PGA Tour caddie friends enjoyed a night out at TopGolf Las Vegas with The Caddie Network last Monday.

Welcome to this week’s social media round up!

First, we start in Sin City. Members of The Caddie Network team hosted a bunch of our caddie friends at TopGolf Las Vegas for a get together on Monday night. Here are a couple of photos from the event:

One thing we quickly learned watching these Tour caddies hit shots? These guys can play, too!

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LPGA player Kim Kaufman started something special this week for her caddie, Audrey Gerdes (hat-tip to LPGA caddie Chris McCalmont for bringing it to our attention).

Back in late August during the week of the LPGA’s Canadian Open, Gerdes had an unfortunate — and painful — mishap off the course. Gerdes fell down and suffered a broken wrist, a fractured wrist, and other minor injuries, according to Kaufman. As a result, she has been out of work for the last seven weeks.

Out of concern for her caddie, Kaufman started a GoFundMe page to help with medical and living expenses. Click here to visit the GoFundMe page. Here’s how Kaufman explained things:

Hello everyone! I am starting this go fund me in hopes of helping out my wonderful caddie, Audrey, with some of her medical bills and living expenses the past 7 weeks. Audrey suffered a broken wrist, a fractured wrist, and other minor injuries in a fall during the Canadian Open. She had numerous doctors visits and eventually surgery and has not been able to work during this time. I know the LPGA family is great at coming together when one of our own needs a little help, so if you can, please consider donating. Every bit helps! I know she, and I, will be very thankful for all donations.

Here are a couple of tweets Kaufman sent out, asking for help… and people in golf have been delivering:

This GoFundMe effort was built for a raise-goal of $10,000. At the time of this post on Monday morning, it had already surpassed $12,000.

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Caddie Kenny Harms is a frequent mention in this weekly piece. Last week, during the opening round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Harms used his hat to make a statement:

For those unfamiliar, Bio Kim is the Korean golfer who — after a win last Sunday on the Korean Tour — was promptly suspended for three years for an incident that occurred on the 16th hole in the final round. It was on that tee box that a cell phone camera clicked in the middle of Kim’s swing. Perturbed by the interruption, Kim gave the spectator the middle finger and then slammed his club into the tee box.

Many in golf believe Kim deserved a punishment of some kind for the outburst — probably a fine at worst — but a three-year suspension? Excessive to say the least.

Kevin Na (Harms’ boss) is a friend of Kim’s and felt the punishment didn’t fit the crime. Harms said he spoke with Na about what he could do to show support for Kim and they agreed on the hat, which Harms had made at a nearby Lids.

Very cool gesture by Harms. Like everyone else, Harms is hopeful the Korean Tour will show a little mercy for this split-second outburst that — at the end of the day — didn’t hurt anyone but Kim.

Click here to read what Harms told The Caddie Network about the hat.

Well done, Kenny… Oh, and it must have been good karma, too. On Sunday, Harms collected another 18th-hole pin flag when Na defeated Patrick Cantlay in a playoff.

As Kenny notes, on Friday, Mark Mazo — caddie for Danny Lee — wore a hat in support of Kim…

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Best pizza in Las Vegas? You had to know Harms would find it…

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There’s no doubt about it: The PGA Tour stop in Las Vegas is one nearly all players and caddies very much look forward to and, understandably, it has little to do with the golf. When they’re not out at TPC Summerlin, there’s never not something to do — whenever they want to do it. Casinos, world-class restaurants, bars and clubs, the aforementioned TopGolf, shows. You name it, Vegas has got it.

However, all that stuff isn’t quite Pete “Crunchman” Persolja’s cup of tea. While most of his fellow caddies were enjoying some form of entertainment on The Strip, here’s how Persolja — caddie for Keith Mitchell — was spending his time:

Would you expect anything less than “epic” from Crunchy Pete?

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Caddie Dave Stone was out in Vegas last week for a business trip. But it wasn’t one spent caddying, which he did on the PGA Tour the last couple of seasons for Ben Silverman. Silverman was unable to secure his Tour card for the new season and Stone was out looking for leads. By the sounds of things, it was a productive trip.

Good luck to Dave on finding that next loop soon. He’s got a great attitude.

Not necessarily directly related to Stone, looper Don Donatello put the struggles of caddies these days into perspective:

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Major winner Webb Simpson started his 2019-20 PGA Tour season in Vegas. It was cool to see him show a little love for longtime caddie Paul Tesori in a pre-tournament tweet:

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Sometimes in life it’s the little things… Like the extra legroom Aaron Flener got on a flight home from Vegas after a missed cut with J.T. Poston…

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The always hilarious Geno Bonnalie — caddie for Joel Dahmen — got a kick out of something he discovered during Wednesday’s pro-am…

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Lastly, we got a kick out of this photo posted by Tommy Fleetwood’s longtime caddie, Ian Finnis:

Naturally, everyone’s eyes zeroed in on Fleetwood’s oversized suit. Finnis set the record straight…

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