but to some degree, you can overglaze the donut.
“ The source of caddie knowledge is different as well. Much of it is gained as a college or professional player. Paul Tesori, former looper for Vijay Singh and now Webb Simpson’ s caddie, was on Florida’ s 1993 NCAA championship team and once had his PGA Tour card,” he noted.
He’ s not the only one. Damon Green, Zach Johnson’ s caddie, played mini tours as a golf professional and was on the bag for Johnson’ s 2007 Masters victory and recent win on the Champions Tour.
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE Last August, New Jersey native and William & Mary graduate Mark Urbanek assumed caddying duties for two-time major winner Collin Morikawa. That pairing is already paying dividends— a win earlier this year at the AT & T Pebble Beach Pro Am, a follow-up seventh at Riviera, and a fifth-place finish at Bay Hill moved Morikawa to the top of the PGA FedEx Tour rankings.
“ Caddying in the last two decades has changed dramatically,” Urbanek observed.“ First off, the percentage of good players on bags now is probably in the 75 percent range as opposed to 25 percent when I started. Superb play is by no means a prerequisite but is the most likely pathway to a tour bag.
“ Secondly, the job’ s lucrative nature has created a much tougher, competitive environment for even the most seasoned caddie. Twenty years ago an experienced caddie had no problem finding a bag. These days opportunities on solid bags are few and far between.”
One thing that can set caddies apart is paying extra attention to their player’ s state of mind.“ The most important thing I can do for a player is to learn to see the game from his eyes and anticipate what he wants or needs to hear,” he said.“ Sometimes it’ s nothing, and that’ s just as hard as the right motivational speech, but everything is calculated. No two situations are ever the same.”
It’ s that variability that keeps Urbanek’ s skills sharp.“ You do the best you can to make calculated guesses based on data you’ ve collected over thousands of swings and hours of conversations,” he said.“ Hopefully you get it right most of the time, but there will be mistakes. You just hope the mistakes are not when the tournament is on the line and you can learn from them when it is.”
CADDIE AS CARTOGRAPHER
William Lanier has spent more than 20 years creating yardage books, blending on-course insight with an artistic eye. What began on the Hooters tour— after seeing other players’ rudimentary books— quickly evolved into a refined process using rangefinders, detailed notes, and hand-drawn layouts built from satellite imagery.
“ I improved the process … and it just snowballed from there,” he said.
Lanier has mapped courses across the country, including several in Virginia, as well as layouts by renowned architects like Coore & Crenshaw and Tom Doak. Among his favorite projects: Ohoopee Match Club in Cobbtown— a Gil Hanse design and Golf Digest # 2 ranked course in Georgia, 2023-24.
Tony Finau is among the PGA Tour players who has employed caddie Mark Urbanek, who played collegiately at William & Mary.
vsga. org M AY / J UNE 2026 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 19