Even the oldest locals don’t remember the last time I worked as a caddie in a professional tournament. I think it was with Juan Vizcaya and I must have been in school… I did this year in an amateur one with Luis Masaveu at the International of Portugal. I carried his bag for a round and he ended up winning the tournament. This week I’m putting it back on my shoulder, because I must be reckless, to help Masaveu, who qualified through the preliminaries and who I also train.
First impression in this diary from Troon. Why do I get into this? Everything hurts. I can hardly feel my left hip, my right shoulder has been hurting me since hole 2, my feet bother me… Everything hurts. I used to fly to tournaments on Tuesdays and play 18 holes without complaining. But I can’t anymore. I need more hands to be a caddie and today was an exceptional day. If I also have to carry a raincoat and umbrella I don’t know what I would have done…
Definitely, I have made two decisions. The first is that I’m going to carry a small bag, because the big one weighs a lot. The second is that I’m going to call each and every one of the caddies I’ve had and apologize to them for mistreating them. This is no life.
Precisely, the caddies are the ones who have had the most fun crossing paths with me this Monday in Troon. Some couldn’t believe it. They laughed their heads off seeing me with the bag on my back. There was also joking around with the players. When they saw me appear in shorts, a yellow cap, and looking like a Sunday golfer, they thought I was going to ask them for money. The visor helped to recognize me and when I don’t wear it, it shows. Today I had to take off my cap and then they said: “oh, if you are Castaño…”.
The reality is that this British has started off on the wrong foot. How was your morning? I’ll tell you about mine. When I woke up in the early morning, before leaving for Troon, I had a very caddie underworld start, with the difference that they wake up drunk and I was directly asleep. When checking the flight this morning, before leaving for Malaga airport, I discovered that the ticket was for July 8th. Very good, Gonzalo. The first one in the forehead. I had made a mistake when getting it. In a hurry, I had to buy another flight. Luckily there was room on the 5.55 am plane, although the joke cost me almost 500 quid.
About the course, I’ll tell you more later. First brushstroke: I haven’t been here since the British Amateur and it’s quite changed. It seems like a great course, except for some holes that are more boring, like 1, 2 and 3 and the end by 18. It’s not the best 18 of Grande, no matter how much excitement there has been in the past.
