On Willie Lee McRae’s tenth birthday, May 19, 1943, his father told him it was time to get a job. He went to Pinehurst, North Carolina, and became a caddie. “And in my first few days, I caddied for Donald Ross and Richard Tufts. It was just a lot of fun. It was kind of like love at first sight.” Ross, the golf course architect and Tufts, whose family owned Pinehurst, are synonymous with golf history. “Donald was a nice guy…He always was right down the middle of the fairways. Had a light bag, which I appreciated. Now they put everything in the bag but the kitchen sink.”
Willie described Ben Hogan as the “greatest ball striker in the world,” and would caddie for Bobby Jones, Julius Boros, Billy Joe Patton, and Harvie Ward, as well as other interesting people. In the 1950s, the Army sent McRae to Fort Dix, New Jersey. Among the officers he routinely beat in match play was a future Green Beret named Earl Woods. “He could get it around,” said Willie of Tiger Woods’s dad, “but nowhere near as good as me.” Willie knew discrimination, which surrounded him in the South, and Ku Klux Klan rallies unfolded around him. Once, a man in a hood approached him and threatened to burn a cross in his lawn. “I’ll burn one in your ass,” Willie replied, which took the man aback, as he slinked away.
He called Arnold Palmer the greatest he ever knew. “When he died, I felt like I lost one of my brothers. I caddied for him when he was at Wake Forrest. We used to have a lot of fun.” And Willie had an interesting observation of President Richard Nixon, who he acknowledged was “the guy nobody liked,” but “he was really pretty nice, actually.” Willie McRae was elected to the Caddie Hall of Fame in 2003, and passed away in 2018 at the age of 85. They don’t make them like Mr. McRae anymore.
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