Greg Kunkel

This season marks Greg Kunkel’s 24th year as caddie master at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield, Ill. Despite that impressive tenure, he’s still the new guy. Kunkel is only the third person to serve as caddie master at Sunset Ridge since the club was founded in 1923. After five years of caddieing at the club, Kunkel took over as caddie master in 1986 when the recently deceased Tony Battistello stepped down following his 41st season at Sunset Ridge.

“For Tony and me to have been the only two caddie masters here for the last 65 years speaks for itself about how supportive the membership is of our caddie program,” Kunkel says. “I work for a great membership, and I had a great mentor in Tony to show me the ropes.”

As a result, Kunkel has become a mentor to hundreds of Chicago-area caddies over the past two decades. Sunset Ridge’s caddie corps includes approximately 130 loopers each summer, most of them in middle or high school. Kunkel trains 40 new caddies each spring, inviting 20 to join the ranks of active caddies at the club.

“These caddies learn a lot. It starts even before training – I’ll tell them to make sure they show up with their hair cut and clean shaven,” Kunkel says. “Some of them think I’m joking, but if they show up looking scraggly, they’re not going to caddie here. A first impression with the members is so important, just like a job interview.”

Caddies also follow a detailed manual, and Kunkel teaches them how to work together to help each other and to make the round of golf more enjoyable for the members. The caddies also work with Kunkel on the other areas of the club he oversees, including the practice range, bag room and valet parking operation. It’s no surprise that the club’s caddie program is fine-tuned and well-known. A survey conducted by Sports Illustrated prior to the 2006 PGA Championship at nearby Medinah Country Club named Sunset Ridge’s caddies the best in Chicago. Many of Kunkel’s caddies have earned college scholarships through the Evans Scholar program, and many more have learned lessons that have helped them throughout their adult life.

“I’ve tried to be a good mentor to a lot of kids over the years, and being around golf as a caddie gives them a chance to learn so many great life lessons,” says Kunkel, who credits a great working relationship with Sunset Ridge PGA Head Professional Bill Reid with helping maintain the caddie program. “Caddieing really teaches you one-on-one people skills. You’re not just carrying a bag out there; you’re spending four hours talking and working with someone on their game. You’re a high school kid spending that kind of time with someone who’s chairman of the board at a bank or senior partner in a law firm. You learn how to talk to adults and earn their respect. That’s going to help you a lot in life when you’re sitting down at a job interview or any number of business situations.”

Sunset Ridge’s most famous caddie alum is Peter Ueberroth. The former Major League Baseball commissioner and chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee is currently owner and co-chairman of Pebble Beach Co. Before embarking on a career that led to being named Time magazine’s 1984 Man of the Year, Ueberroth was an Evanston, Ill., native who spent summers caddieing for Battistello at Sunset Ridge. Ueberroth credited the lessons he learned as a caddie – as well as the muscle gained from carrying two bags at a time on the golf course, which helped him get an college scholarship in water polo – with helping him succeed in business. “He’s said that without that scholarship, he would have never gone to college,” Kunkel says. “Look where he is today; caddieing helped him achieve it. I’m sure I’ll have a couple Peter Ueberroths who will have come through before I leave Sunset Ridge.”

As with any caddie master, Kunkel invariably is asked about the movie “Caddyshack” and whether it reflects real life. He says the life of a caddie at Sunset Ridge is completely different from what took place at the fictitious Bushwood Country Club in the movie — and he knows the inside story better than most. That’s because he grew up caddieing at Indian Hill Club in Winnetka, Ill. — home course for Bill Murray and his brothers.

“My very first day as a caddie, my first loop was Mrs. Havercamp — the real Mrs.Havercamp; she and her husband were members at Indian Hill,” Kunkel says. “This was 1969, years before the movie. I still run into her son every once in a while. They based a lot of the characters in the movie on real people at Indian Hill, but I can tell you my caddie shack at Sunset Ridge is nothing like the one at Bushwood. “But what are the odds of me working at the club where ‘Caddyshack’ was based and then spending more than 20 years as a caddie master?”

—Don Jozwiak
Source: PGA Magazine