FAQ: What do caddies do when their player misses the cut? Are they allowed to hang around?
By The Caddie Network Staff · December 19, 2019
Through our readers and social media followers here at The Caddie Network, we often receive questions related to the caddie profession. We’ve collected the most frequently asked questions from our readers and followers and tasked actual PGA Tour caddies to serve up the answers based on their experiences. Here are the answers — from PGA Tour caddies — to the questions we most often receive from you.
The PGA Tour travels to a lot of cool places. Players and caddies alike enjoy taking in the local culture when their schedules allow for it. But what do caddies do when their player misses the cut? Does that mean they get a weekend of sightseeing in the town they’re in?
What do caddies do when their player misses the cut? Are they allowed to hang around?
It all depends on what one’s player wants to do. Some players will stay and practice and will require their caddie to stay and help. Others will head home, especially if they have the next week off. If I have friends or family in that city we are playing in, I will stay until my original flight is scheduled to leave.
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I happened to caddy for two different LPGA players in consecutive years at the Kingsmill event in Virginia (’13, ’14)… the only two times I ever caddied in LPGA events.
Both players missed the cut, but each year the event was just before a nearby U S Women’s Open qualifier on the Monday following Sunday’s final round of the Kingsmill event. Several LPGA players scheduled those qualifiers to play in because of their proximity to Kingsmill.
So, having missed the cuts, on Saturday we drove to the sites of the qualifiers (Elk Ridge CC in Baltimore and Hermitage CC near Richmond) and got in practice rounds at the qualifier sites.
The first player didn’t qualify at Elk Ridge. The next year however my other player qualified for the Open at Hermitage after a grueling 7-hole playoff, following the regulation 36 holes, that extended into the next day because we ran out of daylight.
Not surprisingly she used a pro caddy when she played in the Open. It was the one played at Pinehurst which was won by Michelle Wie. Unfortunately my friend didn’t make the cut there either.