The Island Golfer: The clubs keeping caddie culture alive

There is something uniquely satisfying about the ritual of it. You arrive at the first tee, the bag is already waiting, a caddie standing quietly alongside it. Before a word is spoken about yardages or wind direction, a small but meaningful transaction has taken place. You have chosen to walk. And you have chosen not to do it alone.

For golfers who grew up with caddies on the North Shore of Chicago, that choice is practically second nature. Tom Kilborn, a Coral Creek Club member who also belongs to Exmoor Country Club, did not just grow up playing golf — he grew up carrying bags. Starting at age ten at Briarwood and Thorngate Country Clubs, Kilborn spent five formative years on the other side of the bag. Those early loops left a mark that endures today.

“I love the conversations with the caddie, getting to know them,” he says. “I like to talk.” Walking with a caddie at Coral Creek or Exmoor is not a preference so much as a conviction. His rationale is as practical as it is philosophical. “Walking is really good for you. I know I’m gonna hit some wayward shots in a round, but I’m gonna get my 10,000 steps in. So, at the end of the day, no matter what I shot, I’m gonna get my 10,000 steps.”

Kilborn is clear about what he values in a caddie: keep up with pace of play, give accurate yardages, and when reading a putt, engage. “I like to read my own greens,” he says, “but I ask them to absolutely agree or disagree with me.” It is a partnership, not a monologue. That partnership reached its most meaningful expression the year Kilborn won the senior club championship at Exmoor, with a veteran looper named Lionel on his bag. “I don’t think anybody knows the greens as well as Lionel,” Kilborn recalled. “He was able to give me some reads that were the reason why I won the tournament.”

Not every caddie program is built the same way, however. And on the Cape Haze Peninsula, thirty minutes from I-75 to the east, the caddie landscape looks very different from the structured programs of Chicago’s North Shore clubs. Different, too, from exclusive, premier Naples golf courses to the south.

Coral Creek Club offers a caddie service to its walking members, currently managed by Logan Sorah, who serves as both Caddie Master and Assistant Golf Professional. Corey Poulin, recently promoted to Facilities Manager, ran the program for sixteen years. About twelve active caddies are currently in rotation – a mix of club employees supplementing their income and outside individuals brought in loop by loop. Poulin, a former caddie himself with a legitimate plus-handicap, is candid about the challenge of keeping outside caddies engaged with the club. “We just don’t get them out enough to survive a rent payment,” he says.

Geography compounds the problem. Caddies driving thirty to forty-five minutes for an occasional bag are hard to recruit and harder to retain. Loops are given as a priority to outside services personnel, which is important for rewarding and retaining semi-permanent staff. On-demand caddies are often recruited from as far away as Jupiter, Tampa and Naples for member tournaments at the club. Coral Creek’s Gator Roll – the annual Men’s Invitational Tournament – yields the highest demand for caddies of any club event. Twenty or more caddies will be onsite during the competition, which is scheduled for next week.

Head Golf Professional Jim Lohbauer frames the program’s importance plainly. “It’s something that makes us unique to any other club in this immediate area, and I think even regionally. It elevates our stature. We have an amazing walking – why not have caddies enhance that even more.” Between five and ten percent of rounds at Coral Creek currently involve a caddie, a number Lohbauer believes could grow with the right structural commitment. Ideas like requiring caddies for members hosting multiple guests, or incorporating a caddie into tournament entry, are being actively explored.

Sixty miles to the south, Old Collier Golf Club in Naples represents what a fully committed caddie program looks like when a club makes it central to its identity from day one. General Manager Steve Waugh, a career golf professional who helped shape Old Collier’s vision from its founding, describes the original mandate: a traditional walking club, built for members who love the game and respect its values.

To fulfill that vision, Old Collier employs between sixty-five and seventy-five single-bag caddies each season – never doubles – drawn from a pool that is roughly half North American and half international, many hailing from top clubs in Great Britain and Ireland. The program’s distinguishing details are numerous and intentional. Caddies pick up and toss divots before filling holes with sand. At the end of each round, every player receives a hand-prepared scorecard filled out by their caddie detailing fairways hit, greens in regulation, putts and sand saves, hole by hole. “I don’t know of any other place that does it,” Waugh says. “I get that comment from guests every time.” The base fee is $120 per bag, with tips typically bringing the all-in total closer to $200 per loop.

The success of the program, Waugh suggests, comes down to something harder to quantify than any of those numbers. “Our caddies come back year after year,” he says, “and the most compelling reason is how they’re treated by our members.” It is the kind of observation that sounds like boosterism until you hear it from someone who has spent decades at premier clubs across the country.

What both clubs share – despite the difference in scale and structure – is a belief that the caddie relationship is worth cultivating. It is not just about having someone carry a bag. It is about the conversation that unfolds over four hours, the partnership forged over repeated rounds and the simple pleasure of moving across a beautiful golf course on foot in good company. Kilborn, who cherishes each loop, puts it best: “There is nothing better than everyone walking with a caddie enjoying each other’s company. It’s a perfect four hours.”

Hard to argue with that.

Scott Cotherman writes about all things golf-related in and around the Cape Haze Peninsula. Contact him at the.island.golfer@gmail.com.