BEVERLY CADDYSHACK GOES NATIONAL

Monday, September 14 at 10:20 a.m.

The Beverly caddie corps is well represented in this year's Senior Amateur Championship. Approximately twelve caddies got loops in the Championship, with a handful carrying bags that made it into match play.

Chris Shallow, an Evans Scholar out of Northwestern, is caddying for Steve Whitaker, who is from Minnesota. Chris doesn't play golf, so he is feeling a bit of pressure since his player is always asking him to read putts and is also looking for advice on "where to miss". Chris is a jovial, but soft spoken, young man and he looks like he's just waiting for the pressure to end. Whitaker, I'm sure, is thinking the same thing with the possible exception that he'd be happy for it to end on Thursday afternoon!

Jason Moss is quite possibly Beverly's most talented caddie. He is bright, intuitive and very motivated. He also plays the game and has a handicap of less than ten. His player, K. Simon, had to win in a playoff this morning in order to advance to match play, so Jason lives to loop another day! He and one other player won and eight or so were eliminated. Jason is ecstatic about this experience, saying, "[t]his thing is so cool."

David Healy, the diminutive, perpetually smiling #1 ranked caddie at Beverly, drew a dream bag for the Championship when he was assigned the job of looping for Mike Bell, a past champion from Indianapolis. Bell is an easy-going fellow who told me that he just loves the fact that David always has a smile on his face. "If he's walking, he's smiling. If he's running, he's smiling. And if he has the bag on his shoulder, he's smiling too," Bell said. David, unfortunately, had to go to school today, so Todd Enderle now takes Bell's bag. Lucky guy, he might have the bag of the winner.

Dan Prendergast, who just got back from a 21st birthday in Las Vegas with his dad and brother is caddying for Doug Poole, who just made it into match play. Poole is from (where else?) Las Vegas.

Zach Jennings, an ever-alert caddie at the Bev is working with Robert Linn, a happy-go-lucky guy from Connecticut with a gray ponytail. Linn is having the "greatest week of my golfing life" and says that he thinks Beverly is "just terrific. I'm going to try to get my club to start a tree removal program so it can look as good as this golf course," he said.

Last but not least, Paul Richards is still on the bag for George Zahringer, who made it into the final match last year. Richards has had some observed difficulties with interpreting distances on the "pin sheet", but otherwise is really enjoying his week. He is blogging about the experience on golfweek.com

MATCH PLAY BEGINS IN JUST A FEW MINUTES.

GET UP TO THE CLUB AND TAKE IN THE SIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Terry Lavin