The world’s first residential caddie school for ex-servicemen has returned to the Home of Golf in Fife.
Launched on Monday February 3 and running until February 28, seven former soldiers from Canada, the United States and the UK have convened at The Dukes Course, St. Andrews, for the second session of the ‘Caddie School for Soldiers’.
Over the course of the month, the art of becoming a golf caddie will be learned by Dan Matthews – Royal Canadian Parachute Regiment; Rick Finn – Canadian Army; Stuart Beaton – Royal Logistics Corps; Robert Goodwin – Coldstream Guards/ Royal Medical Corps; Jeremy Balmonte – US Infantry; Joshua Campbell – US 4th Airborne Brigade and John Pitts – US 4th Airborne Brigade.
Returning again as mentors are Davy Gilchrist and David Scott.
Gilchrist, former caddie master at Kingsbarns and twice voted Caddie Master of the Year in Scotland, is lead instructor for the six veterans while David Scott, a Master PGA professional, is complementing the soldiers’ education.
The soldiers are all living together for the month in Elie. A range of speakers will be visiting them for discussions about the history and rules of the game of golf.
Herb Kohler Jr, owner of the Old Course Hotel, has again provided the Dukes golf course for the soldiers’ training.
As featured by The Courier last year, Caddie School for Soldiers founder Don Snyder – a US author – was working as a caddie at Kingsbarns and St Andrews when he first began to learn about the difficulties so many soldiers were facing as they returned from war.
He had left his home in America for Scotland at the age of 60 to prepare to fulfil a promise he’d made to his son to caddie for him on his first professional tour.
The caddies he worked with were like a band of brothers for him, and he began to imagine that soldiers would feel at home in their company.
He felt that this could be a life changing and perhaps a lifesaving experience for soldiers who were struggling to find their way back from war.
During the summer of 2018 Don began taking steps to establish the world’s first residential caddie school for soldiers with the guidance of the St Andrews Legacy, a non-for-profit organisation that has been bringing wounded veterans to Scotland to play golf as part of their rehabilitation since 2013.
Don added: “We are very excited to be welcoming seven new soldiers this February, three from the US, two from Canada and two from the UK. And I am grateful to the Kohler family for providing us the Dukes Course to train these new soldiers.”
In an exciting update, Don added that the Kohler Company has invited them to hold their first American session of The Caddie School For Soldiers at Whistling Straits in late autumn, after the Ryder Cup.
