There’s no denying the importance of caddies

I had to smile the other day when I discovered that there’s a Caddie Hall of Fame.

The newest inductee is Jimmy Johnson, the former caddie of Nick Price and Steve Stricker who is currently carrying the bag of Justin Thomas.

There was absolutely no disrespect intended in my smile when I heard of the Caddie Hall of Fame, but it came about when I remembered the characters I came across as a young player back in England.

Basically, at that time there were three types of caddies — schoolboys who wanted to earn some extra pocket money over the weekends, older ones attached to famous golf clubs, and those who caddied for professional players.

I saw and met caddies with dubious criminal backgrounds but who had a sense of humour second to none.

There was no mention of a yearly salary or receiving 10 percent of their players’ prize money in those days as the vast majority…