If it’s tough for professional golfers during the suspension of tour golf, it must be at least equally arduous for caddies. Touring pro turned caddie Nick Pugh figures it’s even tougher for those often unsung men and women on the bag.
“If you’re the player, you can still play golf … or at least you can still practice and hit balls, kind of still perfect your art. You can still carry on getting better in your job; but for me, unless I’m bossing my wife around and telling her which tea towel to do the dishes with, it’s hard for me to caddie from home, if you know what I mean,” said the Englishman with the signature beard, currently based in Bandar Seri Begawan where aforementioned wife Suzy teaches at the Brunei International School.
Nick is one of a rare breed who has done virtually everything in professional golf. He was a coach back home in England from 1993 until he headed East in 2010 to try his hand at playing professionally, competing for five years on the Asian Development Tour. About four years ago, realising that tour golf as a player was not his calling, Nick decided to hang up his clubs and carry other golfers’ equipment instead.
With the better half in Queensland, Australia last December
In between, while in Malaysia where he lived for nine years while Suzy put in a long teaching stint at the Nexus International School in Putrajaya, Nick even dabbled in event management. He served as volunteer chairman for the CIMB Classic from 2011 to 2015, and did the same at the 2014 and 2016 EurAsia Cups. The affable if a little quirky Brit was also often the face and voice of equipment launches, usually for his then sponsor TaylorMade.
Nick noted that he made the transition from playing professional to professional bagman quite easily.
“I don’t mean it’s easy to do the job but it was easy for me to make the switch, because I think as a player I was always very good at the preparation side and maybe the strategy and stuff like that. I could always do that part of the game … I just wasn’t good at hitting the ball where I wanted to!
“So I knew how to play the golf course, I knew how to shoot 65, in my head. I just didn’t do it very often because my skill didn’t match up with my knowledge of the game,” he quipped.
“So in actual fact I found it very fulfilling and very satisfying going across to the other side of the bag … all the attention to detail, the drills, the practice and the preparation, that sort of plays into my ballpark and I really enjoy those parts. Now I’m able to stand by the side of the tee box and watch much better golfers than me hit the ball where we talk about and that’s very fulfilling; it’s great to be a part of it,” Nick elaborated.
At Royal Portrush last year with Kurt Kitayama (Photo by Getty Images)
Indeed, being on the bag has taken Nick to places he could only dream of as a player. He’s been to the last two Open Championships, at Carnoustie in 2018 while carrying for Thai star Jazz Janewattanond, and last year at Royal Portrush with rising American player Kurt Kitayama.
Since late last year, Nick has been under the employ of another promising American, Johannes Veerman, who cut his professional teeth in Asia and is now in his first full season on the European Tour.
Both player and caddie are hoping to resume their campaign in Nick’s homeland with the six-event UK Swing, starting with the Betfred British Masters in late July.
“Johannes has a good start to the season, currently 65th on the Race To Dubai rankings, which should be good enough to get into all the UK Swing events. We’re awaiting updates from the European Tour regarding the travel restrictions and quarantine period before making travel plans. I’m in constant contact with him and his manager,” shared Nick, who turns 45 this September.
Furman and his Furkids
Meanwhile, Nick is keeping busy and fit with housework and some hiking. He and Suzy also recently took in two rescued dogs, which they’ve named Walter and Jessie.
“Initially it was kind of nice to spend a bit of time at home because you’re on the road so much travelling … but after a couple of weeks of that and doing a few jobs around the house, we actually took in a couple of rescue dogs off the street and been kind of training them up … and I actually built them a kennel out of wood!
“I’ve also started getting into coffee drinking and making my own coffee. The beans are roasted locally here in Brunei and I got my own espresso machine, so I’ve kind of gone down that little route of learning how to make really good coffee,” he said.
“Apart from looking after the dogs, I’ve been out hiking quite a bit. There are some really good national parks and some nice steamy hot jungle for me to go trekking, which I try to do a few times a week to try keep my cardio up. People don’t realise this but us caddies are walking the same amount of time as the golfers … quite often I walk the golf course before we play the round as well, so I have to keep my fitness level up.”
Nick lamented that he misses Malaysia a lot, especially the food. “I can’t tell you how much I miss Malaysian food! I know I live next door in Brunei and there’s some great food here, but I miss my nasi lemak, roti canai and teh tarik in the morning.
“It’s even got to the point where I’ve started to make my own beef rendang! I’m not much of a chef, but hey, at least it’s edible.”
For those who knew Nick as a clean-shaven player, here’s the story on how and why he went for the bushy look, described by some as a cross between ZZ Top and a garden gnome.
With the late Arie Irawan at the 2017 Maybank Championship (Photo by Getty Images)
“When I stopped playing tournament golf I was kind of like, ‘Hey, why don’t I grow a beard?’ as I’d never had one before. As soon as I grew it, people would make comments and say ‘oh it looks so bad, you must get rid of it’, ‘it looks so scruffy’, ‘you look like a garden gnome’, ‘your head’s on upside down’, etc.
“The more abuse I got, the more I pushed back and the longer the beard started to grow! It was actually the Maybank Championship at Saujana three years ago … I was caddying for my good pal, the late Arie Irawan at the time, and he had a great first round. He shot 66 or something like that and was on TV a lot and, because of that, I was sort of skulking around in the background with this great big beard and I got a lot of attention from friends back in the UK. They were all saying, ‘Hey! You’re on TV! Your beard! Your beard’s famous!’, and a commentator called it a ‘fantastic beard’ or something like that.
“Ever since then it’s become my trademark!”
And it’s a trademark that’s certainly made its mark!
By Jonathan Ponniah
Interview excerpts taken from Episode 3 of The Sweet Spot, a weekly Facebook Live Show by Gila Golfers in association with ParGolf.
