Where did the term "caddy" come from?

Womens golf!

Whilst looking through some sports history, I stumbled across this:

1552 - Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-87), an avid golfer, coins the term “caddy” by calling her assistants cadets. It is during her reign that the famous golf course at St. Andrews is built.

http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/timeline.htm

So not only was the term coined by Royalty, she was an avid player of the game even before the spiritual home of golf was built. Lucky she didnt impose a "ladies only" membership

Anyway, what other terms do you not know the meaning of and often wondered where they originated?

Back in ye olde days when balls were extremely expensive, players also had 'forecaddies' who walked ahead and their job was to act as ball spotters to prevent losing balls.
If a ball was heading in their direction, the player would shout fore(caddie) to warn them, hence the origin of the term 'fore'.

I thought Chevy Chase invented it.

Marcus wrote:I thought Chevy Chase invented it.

Do you take drugs Danny?

The term caddy also isnt totally golf specific, you also have a tea caddy.
I know this isnt relevant or interesting but on a thread as dull as this I didnt think that really mattered.

Golf caddie
Tea caddy

caddie cart

Caddy Baddie

(an extra bad person in a film?)

drive4show wrote:Back in ye olde days when balls were extremely expensive, players also had 'forecaddies' who walked ahead and their job was to act as ball spotters to prevent losing balls.
If a ball was heading in their direction, the player would shout fore(caddie) to warn them, hence the origin of the term 'fore'.

There also used to be shag caddies or shag boys. I cant remember exactly but i think the bag that they used to carry the balls in was called a shag bag so the person who carried that was the shag caddie.

Millions of folk play golf without knowing the origins of the size of the hole and how it came about.
Same re size of a golf ball.

ok lol this has reminded me of a classic story.

Not sure if any off you have heard of jam boys before.

A felow golfer from my club went to africa to play golf.

He and his mates paid the green fees and paid for there caddies.

The caddie master asked them if they wanted a jam boy.

They replied no we are all right mate- looking confused(they didnt have a scooby)

On the tee they asked some brits .whats a jam boy?

they pointed over to the left

they saw a man striped down to his pants covered in jam.

basically the 'jam boy' follows you around the course and attracts the flies rather than them getting on your nerves.

anyone ever had a jam boy?

true story by the way

Mysti - I'm a little disturbed by that

Hobo - whilst I've no problem with your new found fondness for the golf board, what is the obsession with women's golf related topics?? I'm being serious, what's going on?

MustPuttBetter wrote:Mysti - I'm a little disturbed by that

Hobo - whilst I've no problem with your new found fondness for the golf board, what is the obsession with women's golf related topics?? I'm being serious, what's going on?

Careful, he'll accuse you of not liking women. I suggested we call him Kumquat, as this obsession reminded me of Stan, the Eric Idle character in Life of Brian!