Teddy, Teddy, Teddy. You were a hit, man, from what I hear. I wasn't here a couple
years ago, but you were a hit. How did...tell me how you got into the
caddy business. Where did that start? I mean, do you grow up...one day I'm gonna
tote clubs for Bubba, you know? I mean, how...tell us the evolution of...how'd you
get to the end of the caddy business? I failed as a pro golfer.
Failure works, guys. Look at me. Failure works. What happened to me was I turned
pro in 99. One of my friends wanted me to start teaching him golf lessons, so I
started helping him and some other people, and I was playing really good at the
time, and my brother-in-law, who wasn't my brother-in-law at the time, said, hey,
why don't you go and turn pro and try to play? And I said, okay, so he gave me
some money to play mini tours. Did that for a little while, and I said, well, I
need to work on my game. I need to have a lot more swing thoughts, unlike these
guys are simplifying. I was trying to get a whole bunch of them. So anyway, while I
was playing mini tours, the web.com tournament came through my hometown. I
tried to do the Monday. I had 102 fever. I didn't make it. That's not why. But
anyway, this will lead to the next part of the story. So I called the golf course
where I played out of where they have the tournament, and I said, hey, do y'all
need any caddies tomorrow? You know, I feel like if you want to get better at
anything, you get around people who are better than you. That's kind of been my
motto my whole life. So, you know, I said, hey, maybe an opportunity to caddy would be
a way to learn. So I called up at the home club. They said, yeah, come on out and
find the caddy master. Well, I didn't even know what a caddy master was. So I'm
walking out there with a fever of 101 that day looking for a caddy master.
Finally, a friend drives by on a golf cart. I said, hey, do you know where the
caddy master is or who a caddy master is? He said, why do you want a caddy? I said,
yeah, he said, well, meet Grant Waite. So Grant Waite was driving by on a golf
cart. So he says, hey, this is Ted. He's a scratch golfer. He's a member here. He'd
be great for you. So Grant said, okay, I'm going to pay you 500 bucks for the
week. I'm going to pay you 5%, 7% and 10% for those of you that don't know, ask
afterwards. Anyway, so I said, okay, sweet. He goes, well, let me change my shoes.
We'll go out and play right now. Nine holes. And I said, well, I can't caddy
today. I'm sick. So he's like, what? I said, yeah, I can't caddy today. I can start
Thursday. I should probably feel better by Thursday. So he proceeded to find
somebody else to caddy that day and kept me. I don't know why I didn't even know
me. Must have been desperate times back then to find caddies. So anyway, I went
out Wednesday and watched him putt for about an hour. Thursday, I'll watch him
warm up. I mean, the guy's like iron by iron or the ping man. He just stripes
everything. I'm like, who is this guy? Right? So we go to the 10th hole and he's
never seen the 10th hole because he's only played the front nine. He says, Ted,
what's it to carry that bunker? And I replied, it's a two iron. So he said, well,
it might be a two iron for you, but I don't know how far you hit a two iron. He
says, Ted, I go, yeah, he says, how far does it say it is to carry that bunker in
your yard? His book said, I don't have a yard. His book. He started raising his
voice quickly. He said, you don't have a yard. His book. I said, what do I need a
yard before you're the pro? So they're about to announce him. He says, you got
to get a yards book. I said, where do I even get a yards book from? So he said,
the pro shop. So I run to the pro shop, run back, fumble through this thing. You
know, of course, I knew how to read one because I'd played in some mini tour
events. So I looked through it. I said, it's 201 to cover the bunker. He pulls
out a two iron. I'm like, hello. Am I not here? Am I not? Didn't I just tell?
Didn't that? Okay. Anyway, that's my home course. I know this, right? So he
birded the first hole. He missed a four footer for birding the next hole. And then
we get into a series of holes that are very difficult. So the third hole for me
was always hard. Water left, OB right, par five hits a driver, five iron over the
green, gets it up and down for birdie. So now I'm starting to think we're 200
through three. I'm like, what's 10% of 90,000? So we get to the 13th hole of my
home course. And back then in 2000, it happened to be the hardest averaging par
four every single year on the web.com, which is a nationwide tour back then. I
mean, the highest scoring. So he asked me, what is this hole? I said, this is the
hardest scoring hole on the nationwide tour every year. It's the hardest par
four that you're gonna play. You see the water, obviously you don't want to go
there. And then you got trees over here and then wait to see this green. I mean,
this is one of the worst green. He's like, stop, dude. So I said, what? He said,
listen, I don't need to hear all that. He said, no holes hard if you execute.
Every hole is hard if you don't. So I was like, what was that again? So anyway, he
had three wood eight iron to a foot and made birdie. Then he then he went to the
next hole par five went driver five iron to 12 feet and made it for Eagle. So
we're five under through five. And I went to the bathroom and texted my wife and
said, Hey, look, we're rich. Okay. So anyway, that's how I got started.
Catty and the end of the story that week was Grant asked me what I did. He was
great. He told me I told him I was trying to play. He said, want to go to the
range? We'll see your swing. He gave me some pointers. And I'd never been on time
a day in my life, you know, ever. So I decided on Sunday, he asked me to be there
an hour early. I was gonna get there an hour and 10 minutes early. So I walk in
an hour and 10 minutes early. One of my best friends has been following us all
week who's never been late a day in his life comes to me and he says, What are you
doing? You're late. He starts freaking out like he always did with me. I said,
dude, I'm early. It's the first time in my life. I've ever been early. He said,
last night was daylight savings time. So I was there 10 minutes before his tea
time and he asked me to catty again the following week. So who knows? If you
remember Grant Way, too, he was a recipient of the famous out of the bunker
Tiger wood shot over the lake to the back right pin. Was that Canada? Canada and
Grant was the guy that shot beat Grant out for the victory that week. If so,
anyway, that's awesome. That was three months into caddying. So I went from that
story to literally three months later watching the greatest player of our
era, having the greatest year of his life, you know, possibly the greatest
year ever in sports, winning, you know, four straight majors in golf. I mean, just
stand there and go toe to toe with him. Shoot a 66 on Sunday. I mean, I didn't
know what I was doing. Grant, he probably could have used somebody that actually
had some wisdom for him. He's like, five aren't. Yeah, five aren't.
I mean, here he is on 18. He's got 224 to the to the pin. He hits a five
aren't 195 is over water. And he goes, you like five aren't. And he hit it on the
green and two putted and we still lost it. Well, thanks, buddy.
