Golf: Old school Coleman has earned royal approval

Pete Coleman has humped golf bags around the world for a living for over 30 years. He's been at the side of the winner of the Masters at Augusta. He's shared in victory with some of the best players in golf. This week at Gulf Harbour, though, he's looking after a 23-year-old Englishman called Sam Osborne who's been a pro for just a couple of months.

Coleman is, like Steve Williams, part of caddying royalty - one of the select few to have won more than one major championship. Since escaping from a broken marriage and a dead-end job at British Rail in 1974 to try and earn a living on what was then a Europe-only European Tour, Coleman has known, and often worked for, the most influential people in golf.

It's a matter of pride that while Williams might have had more tournament wins than any caddy in history, Coleman is sure he's carried the bags of more winning players than anyone. He's had 59 wins with nine players. A couple of them are names from yore - Tommy Horton and David Hush. But how about this lot - Bernhard Langer, Severiano Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Colin Montgomerie, Gordon Brand Junior, Lee Westwood and Nancy Lopez.

He was with Ballesteros for about "seven or eight wins but never anything really big". The Spanish genius was "a difficult man to work for, and every time a big money event came around, or a major, he'd get one of the family, one of his brothers to caddy."

Coleman's great moments came with Langer. He started with him at an invitation event in Madrid in 1981 and was with him for the next 22 years, including both Masters wins in 1985 and 1993. His take on Augusta, golf's most hallowed turf, is less than flattering.

"It's really hilly and they make you wear those white boiler suits that are just awful when it gets hot. Then they put some green paint-like stuff on the grass to make it look really green on the TV and when that gets wet you slip and slide all over the place."

But he confesses to a special moment at Augusta during Langer's first win there, 20 years ago this April. It came on the 17th hole in the final round and his man had a seven-iron yardage to the pin.

"But on that hole you don't want to be long, there's no shot at the back of the green. I knew he was pumped up so I gave him an eight iron. It finished about three or four feet under the hole, he made birdie and went to the last with a two-shot lead. That's the most satisfying moment I've had as a caddy."

It's during the last nine on Sunday that he reckons a caddy earns his money.

"Anybody can caddy for 54 or 63 holes. But in the last nine, if your man is in contention, you've got to take over a player's mind."

At the age of 63, this straight-talking Londoner has seen it all and is not afraid to say it how he sees it.

On today's players: "They don't realise how spoiled they are. There were no courtesy cars and free practice balls when I started."

On how much a caddy should be paid: "If your man wins and you don't get 10 per cent, then you're being shafted."

On being dumped by Lee Westwood after working with him during his great comeback of 2003 when he went from 250th in the world to 50th: "That was the saddest part of my caddying career."

And has he made much money? "Yep, I've made a couple of million. But I've spent two and a half."


- Herald on Sunday