 "Golf's other half: From the fringe to the fairway")
When Danny Willett, recently crowned Masters champion, got married in 2013, the Best Men at his wedding were Sam Haywood, his former caddy, and Jonathan Smart, his current caddy. The camaraderie between Willett and Smart was visible on the Augusta greens on Sunday. Smart was the first to congratulate Willett after he won the tournament.
Caddies have always been an integral part of golf. In most developed countries, especially in the United States and across Europe, the caddy system is used to attract fresh talent into the game, through training programmes, college scholarships, and branding and sponsorship initiatives.
In India, till around the early 1990s many caddies went on to play professional tournaments. The flush of corporate sponsorship deals and prize money attracted talent from well-to-do families. However, caddies continue to come from poorer sections of society. Take the case of Chandrika Prasad, 45, a resident of Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Last month, in the wee morning hours he left his home near Badarpur for the Delhi Golf Club, in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi, a distance of around 16 km. He worked as a caddy – a daily-wager – just like 400 others, in one of the country’s oldest golf clubs. However, Prasad was run over by a speeding vehicle.
As a daily-wager, Prasad was not entitled to any social security benefit or compensation as caddies are not on the rolls of the club. What they earn each day depends on the players they accompany on the course. Typically, each day a caddy spends between four to eight hours, lugging a 13-14 kg bag of clubs, covering around four to six kilometres. “There are days when we may not earn anything, and return home empty-handed,” says Karimuddin, a 50-year-old caddy, who first stepped on the grass at the Delhi Golf Club as a 10-year-old.
A closure of the course for maintenance, or during rains, means there will be no pay. Generally, caddies make between Rs 8,000 and Rs 15,000 a month, depending on the season. The winter sun attracts more players to the course.
However, there is a silver lining to Prasad’s death. Clubs are realising the need to strengthen the weakest link in the golf ecosystem – the status of caddies. The Caddies Welfare Trust, a private initiative of members of the Delhi Golf Club, is in the process of handing over a cheque of Rs 1.75 lakh to Prasad’s family as part of a group life insurance package for caddies. “This is the first time a caddy’s family will get financial assistance after death,” says Karimuddin.
Since its inception three years ago, the trust has cajoled 370-odd regular caddies to open mediclaim and life insurance covers for themselves and their families in an effort to improve the stock of caddies. Each caddy pays a subsidised annual premium of Rs 188, the rest being borne by the trust. In case of natural death, a caddy’s family gets Rs 1.3 lakh as compensation.
Recently when the club closed down for maintenance for a month, caddies were given cash support of Rs 2,000 to meet financial needs. “This is another first in the history of the club,” says Raj Khanna, a trustee. Several retired caddies have been given financial support of around Rs 10,000 each, while golf kits have been handed out to those caddies and their children who want to pursue the game. One of the beneficiaries is Ram Murath Yadav’s 17-year-old son.
While caddies acknowledge the effort, what angers most of them is the lack of space for practising their skills. “Without training we will at best remain coolies,” says 33-year-old Zakir Hussain, who has been working at the club for about 20 years. A licensed trainer, he picked up the intricacies of the game on the job as a caddy. His idol, Ali Sher, was a caddy who turned professional golfer in 1980s and went on to win several international tournaments. Sher is now an honorary member of the club. “There is pressure on the club to maintain the course for its 5,000-odd members. Naturally, caddies lose out,” says R S Bedi, another trustee. Some clubs across India give caddies around an hour each week to practice.
“The difference that caddies bring to the game is the hunger in the stomach. It is a ‘do or die’ situation for them,” says Amit Luthra, an Asian Games gold medallist, and managing partner of chartered accountancy firm, Luthra & Luthra, who runs The Golf Foundation, a non-profit organisation, to nurture under-privileged golf talent. Around half of the 40-odd boys and girls supported by the foundation are caddies.
Conscious of the need to facilitate skill development of caddies and their children, the Caddies Welfare Trust plans to promote at least two promising caddy golfers each year, apart from extending its work to other clubs across India.
However, a lot depends on April 15, when the annual charity tournament will be held at the Delhi Golf Club. “That is our only source of funds for financing the work for caddies,” says Bedi. This year’s edition has attracted around 12 sponsors, including IndiGo, Genpact, HDFC Bank, ITC, Coca-Cola, and Nike, among others. The plan is to raise around Rs 45-50 lakh. “As social awareness among caddies grows, so does their list of grievances, and the pressure to generate more funds,” says Khanna. While these are early days, there is hope that Zakir Hussain and his ilk can be the next Ali Sher.
