Hot sports opinion: you don't need a caddie.

When it comes to playing the course, it's all right there in front of you. There's nothing particularly tricky about the course if you've got a rangefinder and an app like The Grint on your phone. It's also not an especially hard walk. Aside from the climb up #6 I don't remember any other spots where I was really wishing someone else was dealing with my bag (you can get a pull cart).

As far as the camaraderie and all that, I've gotten caddies probably twenty times. Always at nice, expensive courses (Pebble, Scotland, Ireland, Bandon, etc). I'd guess my W/L/T record is around 3-4-13. I've had a few that were AWESOME, a handful that kinda sucked, and the overwhelming majority were just... fine.


Anyway, there are tons of stories out there about awesome caddies who really enhance your experience. But there's also a chance you're gonna spend a couple hundred bucks to spend five and a half hours hanging out with some dude whose company you don't enjoy.

If you get a caddie, I hope it's awesome. I'm not saying DON'T do it, I just don't think it's a must.

Also there's a decent chance that someone in your group has a caddie and you'll get a chance to BS with them waiting on tee boxes and stuff.

Well… y'all were right. Playing Pebble Beach was awesome!

Since we are both high handicaps, we decided to do a scramble. Ended up shooting an 88 (probably 30 shots lower than I would have gotten by myself) and had a blast.

Opted not to take a caddy since we aren't really good enough to hit it where he says anyways. But the other two guys with us had a caddy. He was a big stickler on pace or play but seemed nice overall (and would often hold us up).

It was so much fun and had a blast!