“ Back in the 60s and 70s, caddies couldn’ t even come on property at tournament sites unless they were accompanied by their players. Now, we can go in and out of the clubhouse and into the locker rooms.”
— WILLIAM LANIER and the State Open of Virginia [ seven times ]. Even though I was not world class, I still had a desire to play professionally,” Lanier recalled.
“ In 1999 at Raleigh Country Club, former LSU teammate and mini tour player Greg Lesher suggested I see Curt Byrum about caddying for him. For the rest of that year I went to Monday qualifiers. If I didn’ t get in, I’ d caddy for Curt,” he said.
“ That was really my introduction into caddying— word of mouth and networking,” he continued.“ Curt was great, a 100 percent professional and total gentleman. I did Monday into three tournaments that year, but I was primarily a caddie learning the ropes. I continued playing professionally on the Hooters Tour, but by 2008-2009 I knew that my playing days were behind me.”
Lanier’ s now in his 17th year of fulltime carrying.“ My longest relationship was six years with Wesley Bryan. Together we won the 2017 RBC Heritage,” he said.
ROUGH SLOG Tour bag weight.“ At least 40 pounds,” Lanier said.“ Gearing up for rain can increase the weight to 50. And all courses are not flat. Congressional is a tough course to walk, so is Augusta. Pebble Beach has a lot of sidehill lies.”
In addition to Bryan and Wu, Lanier’ s also carried for K. J. Choi, Michael Boyd, college teammate David Toms at the 2008 Masters, Henrik Norlander, Mark Hubbard, Michael Herbert, Ben Martin, Matt Jones, and Carson Young.
“ I’ ve been all over the world, 21 countries including multiple trips to Europe, Asia, Japan,
Canada, Mexico, and Panama,” he said.“ I’ ve caddied at all four majors including the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale won by Jordan Spieth. The Open Championship is pretty special. The spectators there have a reverence for the game that’ s unlike any other place in the world.”
GOLF TODAY At 58 years of age, Lanier has witnessed a seismic evolution in golf and the caddying profession.“ Technology has influenced the game considerably,” he said.“ There have been agronomic improvements and focus on cutting heights, precision manicuring, irrigation regulation, and more.
“ Then there are weather apps. Twenty-five years ago you either had to listen to
the weatherman on TV or you picked up the newspaper. Now we’ ve got a lot more— wind apps that show you graphics, directions, and variations. I go to the regular Weather Channel app. Some players use more sophisticated apps that report barometric pressure. Someone like Bryson DeChambeau calculates the barometric pressure into each shot.
“ To be honest, some of it’ s overkill. When it’ s hotter or downwind the ball travels farther so you need more spin to keep it on the green. If it’ s into the wind, it’ s not going to travel as far, meaning you want less spin so it doesn’ t spin back off the green. A lot of this stuff you learn through the years,” Lanier said.
While the launch monitor’ s transformation of fitting, instruction, and shot execution has forever changed the professional game, acquired knowledge is still vital to the caddie-player partnership.
“ Nowadays, you have TrackMan telling you how many RPMs the ball is spinning. To me, I wonder how significant it is to know that your driver speed is 177 MPH or your 8-iron is spinning at 7,500 RPMs,” Lanier said.“ I know there is merit to it, but how far down that rabbit hole do you really need to go? And is it really saving you shots? I’ m not throwing TrackMan or technology under the bus,
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