Caddie School A Thriving Tradition At Spring Lake Golf Club
When Tom Caverly took over as caddie master at Spring Lake Golf Club in 1985, he was unhappy with the look of his would-be caddie charges.
“I told the so-called undesirables that they were not welcome back. I wanted us to focus on young men, high school and college students, who we would train,” Caverly said. “We now have 100 caddies, although some are older professional men, but they come back and caddie here because they love doing it. And they are people we like having here.”
“Caddie School” is an annual rite of spring at the shore-area club. This year, about 40 youngsters are getting instruction from Caverly and his staff, which includes assistant caddie master Mike Knapp and assistant pros Chuck Healy and Matt Kelly. Between 10 and 15 of the students will have an opportunity to caddie this summer at Spring Lake.
“The first year I started Caddie School, I had seven kids. I went to the local schools to recruit caddies and let the schools know of my plans. It took me 10 years to get to a full group of 50 kids at Caddie School.
“It is very rewarding to come though it It’s free networking for life. A caddie is a caddie forever. One of our former caddies calls it a fraternity. Guys like him like to help out the kids.”
One such former caddie, Gary Sagui, recently donated $10,000 to Spring Lake’s Caddie Scholarship Fund, and wrote a heartfelt note, explaining how he could not have attended Princeton without the monies he earned while caddieing at Spring Lake.
“We have a caddie tournament each year and in the winter, they conduct a local Toys for Tots drive,” said Caverly, a former Spring Lake caddie himself. He also toted bags across the street at the Homestead Country Club, nine holes of which are now part of Fairway Mews.
Before youngsters commit to Caddie School, Caverly or an associate has a sit-down conference with his parents. They are shown a video, “How To Become a Great Caddie,” put together by the Western Golf Association which sponsors the Evans Caddie Scholarship program.
“We let them know how rewarding carrying a golf bag can be. The kids learn to be responsible. We teach them leadership. Many of our members set a good example and the caddies look up to them. They become more familiar with different aspects of the world. Working here prepares them for the world.”
“Caddieing prepares you for life. I say life had two parts, “BC,” or Before Caddieing, and “AC,” or after caddieing.”
Spring Lake is one of the state’s most generous clubs when it comes to funding scholarships for caddies.
At a sold-out caddie reunion outing at the club in September, 2012, some $70,000 was raised, with half of the proceeds benefitting the NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation and the other half benefitting Spring Lake’s own caddie scholarship program.
Currently, seven Spring Lake caddies are receiving grants from the NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation: Thomas Burns (Notre Dame), Justin Cannon (James Madison), John DeGenova (College of New Jersey), Luke Hayduk (Rowan), Connor McAuley (Seton Hall), Francis Peropat (Fairfield) and John Stysinger (Rutgers).
In addition, Joey Gowen (James Madison) is receiving a scholarship from the club.
Caverly spent time in the U.S. Navy, then worked on Wall Street as a clerk for the New York Stock Exchange, “a job I hated.” He quit and headed to Colorado, spending a year skiing. When he returned home, he saw Jim Jewell, then the head pro at Spring Lake, for whom Caverly had personally served as a tournament caddie.
It was Jewell who informed him the club was looking for a new caddie master.
Caverly and Spring Lake’s current pro Bill King, who was inducted into the New Jersey PGA Hall of Fame last year, have worked to strengthen the caddie program at the club tremendously. Both men are Lifetime Sustaining Par Club Members of the NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation, meaning they continue to donate to the Foundation even though they have surpassed $10,000.
“Caddie School teaches you to be prepared for what a player may need. Tom is very much into discipline and about a caddie looking presentable,” said Kevin Maciorowski, head pro at Westlake Golf and Country Club in Jackson who was a Caddie School instructor for five years while an assistant under King. “Tommy puts the fear of God into the kids when they’re training, but once you’ve made it, he’s your guardian angel. He’ll do anything for you.”
Knapp, who gave up a teaching career to join Caverly at Spring Lake, went through the Caddie School as a teenager and is now a top instructor.
“You were almost afraid of making a mistake for the fear of failure,” he said. “But through those mistakes, you are made a better person and a better man. We’re looking for kids who seek to get better each and every time. They will eventually succeed in the real world.”
Knapp, a former high school golf coach at Paramus Catholic, impresses the youngsters by taking them around the course with a golfer and teaching them all the different facets of the game and what a caddie’s role is in the game.
“We learn a lot about golf etiquette, where to stand on the green and the yardages of holes,” said Chris Gowen, a freshman at St. Rose in Belmar who went through Caddie School in 2013.
His brothers, Joey and Colin, had already become Spring Lake caddies ahead of him.
“They told me it would be really strict. It tests your knowledge. I was a little nervous when I first started, but thanks to Caddie School, I got confident pretty quickly. And the money is great,” said Gowen, who earns $60 per bag.
Healy is a former caddie at nearby Manasquan River Golf Club.
“The training is not easy. It’s four-to-six weeks, two or three days a week after school. The biggest thing with these kids is the yardages. And to learn to speak when spoken to,” Healy stated. “But they don’t have to be shy. They can talk if the golfers want to talk.”
