Which pro/celebrity have you played with/caddied for

Akin to the which pro have would you like to play with thread but based on who have you had a round with (playing or caddying) and what were they like.

Sure there are some much more interesting tales than my solitary effort and I'd like to hear of them.

Anyway, back in the late 80s (I think...) the SPARKS organisation/charity used to have one of their celebrity golf days at Castletown and as young scroats a few people I went to school with would rock up in the morning and hang round until asked to caddy for someone in the hope of someone famous (of the ilk of Kenny Lynch no less) proffering an elusive a tenner (or sometimes 20!). The one year I bothered I got none other than the colossus that is Willie Thorne. Genial giant of a man (certainly seemed huge to me at the age I was) very pleasant sunny day that I enjoyed thoroughly. I think he carried a 2 iron which even back then I thought was quite odd as I don't recall him being able to wield it with any notable ability (ie he played crap) but at least the leading edge got a good workout with a number of arm rattling thins and tops for good measure (or were these the crafted links shots he probably claimed in the bar afterwards...)

The tenner was duly passed over at the completion of play which went towards filling my half set of Rally "blades" with the missing numbers. Covered half the price of the Wilson Sam Snead 8 iron I purchased as I recall.

Girl I went to school with got Cliff Thorburn and made the old sandwich/sand wedge classic passing him a ham and cheese bread based product to extricate himself from one of the traps rather than a lofted club of high bounce. Oh how we laughed*.

*probably

Top that oh illustrious 606ers...

Nick Faldo, who didn't say anything to me - or anyone except his caddie - during the entire round. My score was only two worse than his, so I thought he might have said something every now and again.

Bruce Forsyth - I didn't think it was possible for someone to moan for all 18 holes, but he managed it. Ronnie Corbett was in the same group, and he wasn't much better.

I caddied a couple of times for Catriona Matthew, who was just great to be around.

Scott Hoch - he knocked me out of the Amateur Championship. He was pretty nice too.

Frank Carson - great to be with, but hard to play golf when you are laughing.

Roger de Courcey - funny and pleasant enough, but takes golf seriously.

James Garner - nice guy and a good player.

Ronnie corbet. Isn't funny on the golf course. In fact darkly depressing. Also he never tips

Nigel Martin. Legend

Just after the end of his football career Julian Dicks used to play in a golf society that I am also a member of and I played a few times with him. A very tenacious footballer of course, he was also a very competitive golfer and actually a very good player. He got down to scratch and would regularly shoot 3 or 4 under to clean up on our society days and had hopes of turning professional. For the last two years of his contract at West Ham he was unable to play football because of a recurrent knee injury but still picked up £800,000 in wages and towards the end he didn't even have to report to Upton Park let alone do any training. So he spent practically every day on the golf course practising and once he did get a sponsors invite to play in a professional event in Holland. Unfortunately after a disastrous first days score of 92 he realised that he was still well short of the standard required at that level. I liked him a lot, he would regularly entertain us with anecdotes and amusing stories from his football career.
 
Another footballer I have played with is Ian Marshall who played for Everton, Ipswich, Oldham and Leicester amongst others. He hit the ball miles but rarely in the right direction and was definitely a bit lacking in the finer skills of the game. He seemed a bit down on his luck to be honest, after he retired from football he moved to Canada to set up a coaching academy. He was there 5 years but then his marriage broke up and he was back in England on his own, his wife had stayed in Canada with their kids.
 
DJ Spoony is a mad keen golfer and I played with him once. He used a buggy on the course which I thought was a bit unsociable, but to be fair at the dinner afterwards he was very friendly and good company.
 
Many years ago when I was still in my teens I played in a charity day with the actor Patrick Mower. His girlfriend at the time was a very young and a very gorgeous Suzanne Danielle who, of course, went on to become Mrs Sam Torrance. After the golf she joined us for a drink in the bar...that was the best bit of the whole day to be honest!  
 
A few months before that I had played in another charity do with Michael Barratt who had presented 'Panorama' but perhaps was best known for being the front man for many years on the BBC news programme 'Nationwide'. I remember being really nervous, I was very young and he was the first TV celebrity I had really met. It didn't help when on the first tee he announced... "Well I'm just here for a day out, it's down to you good golfers to score the points for the team". Thanks a lot Michael!

I think we must have some mutual acquaintances, Blue - I played Hillside with Julian Dicks on a trip to Southport with my old club, back in the late 90s. He shot a very solid 70 and took the money!

That's a fairly impressive list George.

I know I've definitely played with one US Open Champion, had a lesson then 9 holes with Scott Simpson in Hawaii last year...took him down the last as well before gassing it :-/

Back in 2005/2006 (not exactly sure of the year) My late Mrs took me to Turnberry for the weekend for my birthday. I played the Ailsa course with an American couple and a young Northern Irish lad who was about 15ish and was around scratch, He had a caddie and seemed very focused and was a bit disappointed to shoot 73 on a decently breezy day. I'm almost sure it was Rory but can't be certain.

Oh and nearly forgot, D4S & I got paired up with Mr Kylie Minogue (Andreas Velancoso) at the Grove last year. To be fair didn't know who he was until I googled him when I got home)

To be fair JAS, after that experience I'm pretty sure Mr Minogogue [sic] will have googled you guys too!

JAS wrote:That's a fairly impressive list George.

I know I've definitely played with one US Open Champion, had a lesson then 9 holes with Scott Simpson in Hawaii last year...took him down the last as well before gassing it :-/

Back in 2005/2006 (not exactly sure of the year) My late Mrs took me to Turnberry for the weekend for my birthday. I played the Ailsa course with an American couple and a young Northern Irish lad who was about 15ish and was around scratch, He had a caddie and seemed very focused and was a bit disappointed to shoot 73 on a decently breezy day.  I'm almost sure it was Rory but can't be certain.

Rory McIlroy - that's a nice claim to fame.

I'd have to say that the best golfing experiences I've had are never with celebs or pros - they have always been (and probably always will be) with regular people and guys you just get paired up with when you pitch up. I'm lucky that some people I've met golfing on holiday have become and remained good friends.

Rory would've been at least + 4 or 5 handicap at that time

Rory was playing off scratch in 2004, going into 2005. Don't know what he got down to in 2005 but it was that year when he blossomed - he shot 61 in the NI amateur. Could well be him that jas played with.

I've been lucky to play with a lot of pros... but the most unusual call I ever got was to play with Franz Klammer back in the mid 90's sometime.   Turns out Klammer was staying at the Woodlands Inn (I have no idea why) and showed up at the TPC The Woodlands looking for a game.  I was good friends with the head pro, so it ended up being just the three of us.  

Klammer was a hoot. VERY engaging guy, and willing to share stories of his skiing and car racing exploits, not the mention the "lifestyle" of the jet-set.    One of the funniest things I remember was just a hole or two into the round... Klammer hits an approach and as it's still in the air starts yelling "Grow Tees.... grow tees".    We looked at him like Huh?   Then he pointed to his TEETH... "TEES... Grow TEES.... you know like BITE".   Oh... TEETH!!! Cracked us up.  I had never heard that one before... but to this day... I use "Grow Tees, Grow Tees"... all the time... :-)

Sapphire or Jewel or something like that...

Mr Willie Thorne is at my club this week with his charity game(Loros) where everyone plays in a Santa outfit.Nice fella does a good auction after.tenuous Klammer connection when I went skiing at innnsbruck many years back and took a good 15 minutes down the Olympic downhill which master Klammer did in well under two minutes.
Steve Backley,pros DJ Russell,Jim Rhodes,Wesselingh,and Robert Rock in his very first professional tournament and he was a bit useful hit the ball very hard and very straight.
Strangely the fella who did my granite kitchen worktop had just finished Kylies kitchen in London.
Wierd

Just looking back and BC will be pleased to know that Ian Marshall is alive and well and playing at my club.His group won the texas scramble on Saturday due to some seriously long hitting.10 under gross.I think scramble is his type of game.Good club member nice fella

Roller_Coaster wrote:To be fair JAS, after that experience I'm pretty sure Mr Minogogue [sic] will have googled you guys too!

Probably not lol...btw just realised he's not Mr Minogue any more....Kylie is therefore back on the market...hurrah!!