Scotland’s Caddies Documentary Review

Scotland’s Caddies Documentary

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: Deserves a wider audience

Scotland’s Caddies is an absolutely delightful documentary film featuring some of the most picaresque courses—and most picaresque characters—that have ever been captured on film. In sixty nine minutes, filmmaker Ron Colby takes the viewer to St. Andrews, Kingsbarns, The Macrihanish, Troon, Turnberry, Gleneagles, Royal Dornoch, Prestick and Royal Aberdeen to meet with and listen to the stories of Scotland’s professional caddies.

And what stories they are. The caddies tells us who the world’s best and worst tippers are, reveal the secrets of celebrity golfers such as Michael Jordan, Sean Connery, Jack Lemmon, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and regale with memories of the best and worst clients. Americans, to my relief, generally seem to come across pretty favorably. I hate the thought be being regarded as pariahs in other nations.

“Give me a good ol’ Yank anytime,” one caddie said.

There’s also quite a bit of history in the film. It starts out, in fact, with a recounting of the development of golf and the caddie. Very interesting stuff.

What surprised me most about the film was that so many apparently make a career out of being a caddie. Even more surprising is that some of them seem to have taken to looping after retirement or a go at another trade or profession. I hope I’m in good enough shape to be able to toe a bag in my retirement.

You can see several clips from Scotland’s Caddies after the break.