St. Andrews Caddies
Letter to the Editor
August 20, 2004
St. Andrews Citizen

Sir,

I read the letter from J. M. Henderson of Motherwell, who stated that he favored caddies at St. Andrews from a wide range of nationalities and that he was ��appalled a the narrow-mindedness of individuals to imply that nationality comes before ability.�

No such implication of sacrificing ability was intended when I previously wrote to the editor. It is my belief, from having played the Old Course over the past three decades, that local Scottish caddies who have spent their career on the St Andrews Links are far superior in caddie skills than imported caddies.

It is the senior Scottish caddies who should be at the top of any priority list that Mr. McKenzie has created, and it is just such caddies who have too frequently left the Links to work at Kingsbarns or St Andrews Bay where they get a phone call to be told when to show-up, rather than having to sit and wait hours for St Andres Links work and pay a 5 pound tax when they get employment.

With respect to the so-called �narrow-mindedness� of wanting a local caddie, I have just finished contacting 22 American golfing friends, golf writers and other acquaintances who have played the Old Course. Every single man and woman that I contacted has stated that they want an experienced Scottish caddie when the play the St Andrews Links.

Several have been assigned American caddies, Germans and even a Chinese caddie. All of them felt the same as me in that the Old Course experience was diminished, rather than increased, as a result.

When a tourist goes to great expense with very long flights, they want an experienced Scottish caddie.

This is becoming noticeably less probable of happening each year in the past five years and this problem needs to be reversed.

Dean Knuth
San Diego, California