GREEN GOLF AND TURF
MIKE“ ACE” MORAN was idly thumbing through the newspaper one afternoon in 2005 when an advertisement caught his eye: Kinloch Golf Club— No. 1 on Golf Digest’ s 2001 list of best new private courses in America— needed to hire additional caddies to serve its growing membership in Manakin Sabot.
The 24-year-old Moran had never caddied before and had only been playing golf for about five years, but he was restless and trying to find a foothold in the working world beyond his job in the pro shop at Hunting Hawk Golf Course. He called the number in the ad and got invited out to Kinloch for what turned out to be a job interview with its caddie master.
When Moran arrived, they hopped on a golf cart and headed out to the first hole. During the ride, the caddie master asked if Moran could add and subtract. Having received assurance that basic math was no issue, they
walked out to the middle of the fairway, and he handed Moran a pin sheet.
“ Look at the number on that sprinkler head and then look at the pin sheet. How far do I have to hit this ball?” the caddie master asked.
Moran aced the pop quiz and was hired on the spot.“ That’ s how I got into caddying. Twenty years later, I’ m still here,” he said with a laugh.“ Sometimes I’ ll be out on the course and I’ ll look around, thinking man, this isn’ t a bad office at all.”
Moran is now among the longest-tenured caddies at Kinloch, which opened in April 2001 as a walking golf club— per the vision of its co-founder, legendary amateur Vinny Giles— and continues to buck industry trends by maintaining a robust caddie program for roughly 400 members and their guests.
The 60 full-time and 60-70 part-time caddies, mostly retirees and high school or college students,“ are an integral part of what we do at Kinloch,” said Giles, who grew up caddying from the age of 8 in his native Lynchburg.
Peter Gasperini looped for U. S. Mid-Amateur finalist Bobby Massa last fall at Kinloch. Below: Jed Rasnick( left) is one of Kinloch’ s many caddies. Course patriarch Vinny Giles, right, says caddies are integral to the Kinloch experience. vsga. org J ULY / A UGUST 2025 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 23