Luke Thornton, right, looped for three-time U. S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad last year at Kinloch. |
|||
|
“ We just felt like, if we want to have a really unique experience for golfers who love the game and love the outdoors, there’ s nothing quite like walking a premier course and being able to interact with your caddie and the people you’ re playing with.”
LIFE AT KINLOCH According to Eric Rule, Kinloch’ s general manager, a walking golf club must be both fully committed to its caddies and willing to forego cart fees that generate between $ 200,000 and $ 300,000 annually.
“ Before they ever set foot on the property, our members know they’ re not going to be taking a cart, they’ re going to be walking and here’ s what the caddie fee is. If they don’ t like that, then maybe we’ re not the place for them,” he said.
“ It helps having a membership that’ s 110 % behind the caddie program. You don’ t get guys trying to push for stuff like optional carts or no caddies after 2 p. m. You can’ t have that if you’ re going to have a successful program,” added Justin Barnes, Kinloch’ s longtime caddie master.
Known as“ JB” to everyone at the club, the Goochland County native was one of Kinloch’ s first employees. He remembers working out of a small trailer where one of
|
the overnight guest cottages is now located before the Tudor-style clubhouse opened in 2002.
Five years later, Barnes filled in while the interim caddie master was on vacation. He didn’ t treat it like a temp job, taking the initiative to assign all of the available caddies to a daily schedule so they got advance notice of when they had to work and no longer had to sit at the club waiting for their loop. Things ran so smoothly that when the interim guy returned to work, he was informed that Barnes had been reassigned to oversee the caddies on a permanent basis.
“ You need to have somebody who cares for the program and caddies who trust you. You have to be straightforward with them— you can’ t lie to them about groups and times or anything like that. You earn that trust with the guys and they’ ll have your back,” Barnes said.
Each of the caddies interviewed for this article cited Barnes as a major reason why Kinloch has such low turnover, which is fairly uncommon in an industry where caddies tend to bounce around from club to club looking for the best situation.
“ You’ re working at a place that’ s as premier as it gets in Virginia, just as good as
|
any club on the East Coast. Then you add in having a great boss and it makes you love the place that much more,” explained Jed Rasnick, who has caddied full-time at Kinloch since 2011.“ He is so down to earth, and he has the temperature of all the caddies. He can tell when I’ m tired after we’ ve worked 28 of 32 days and he’ ll say‘ Hey, you want a day off tomorrow?’ He knows how to work with us. That helps with what can be a grind.”
Because of Virginia’ s climate, the busy season for golf runs from April through November. For caddies who opt not to head south to Florida for the winter, that means having to work a lot in those eight months and budget carefully enough to cover house payments and other household bills for most of the year.
On a rolling 250-acre property like Kinloch, caddies can walk 6½ to 7 miles in a typical round, carrying two golf bags most of the way. That type of mileage takes a toll physically when you’ re working six out of seven days many weeks, particularly during Virginia’ s hot, humid summers.
“ I can still hear my old caddie master in the back of my head saying,‘ Winter is coming,’” Rasnick said.“ When he used to offer me work in October, I’ d be tired and want a day off, he’ d say‘ Winter is coming.’
|
LOGAN WHITTON, USGA( 5) |