Caddie sack: Coronavirus spoiling summer plans for many

Here's someone most people probably haven't considered as plans for the return of sports are beginning to take form: The caddie. Yes, they are behind the scenes in the grand scheme, but they are up close and personal to the golfer they're serving. In this new era of social distancing, at least locally, that's not going to work. As of now, most courses — private and public — are open, but under guidelines of one golfer per cart or bag if you're carrying your own clubs. That includes private courses in Lorain County — Elyria Country Club and Red Tail Golf Club and Avon Oaks Country Club in Avon. Red Tail doesn't employ caddies, but they do have bag service and that will be under strict social distance restrictions moving forward. So, for now, there's no caddying going on at the country clubs and it's unknown when and if that's going to change this summer. "It's to be determined," Elyria Country Club caddie master Jeff Bailey said. "There's no caddying going on now. And it's unfortunate because they're all out of school and they're all wanting to work. I was hoping something was going to happen by around now. "At the moment, I just don't know where that all stands. I'm a little less encouraged than I was a couple weeks ago. But in a week, they could change something and they could try it, I don't know. I'm hopeful for these kids because they're not even in school. They'd love to be out here working." "As of now, there is no caddying," Avon Oaks first assistant pro Mike Miller said. "It doesn't help with social distancing when you've got a caddy. We don't know if we'll get it back at the end of the year, but as of now there's no caddies going out." Bailey, who's managed the caddie program at ECC for 37 years, said he's received texts every day for weeks from caddies looking for updates on the situation. Many of them are in high schools which are closed for the year. Instead of getting some solace — and money — once virtual school lets out in the summer, they can't perform their part-time jobs. That includes ECC caddies Andrew Massey, a junior at Vermilion High School, Logan Janik, a junior at Amherst High and Brian Sayers, a graduating senior at Keystone High. "They're all good kids, all hard-working caddies," Bailey said. "(They're) all in high school. They probably had planned on making some good money this summer and have not been able to caddy up to this point." Needless to say, times have changed for the local caddies. "Last year at this time I was probably working every weekend, so I was already a couple hundred bucks up from now," Janik said. "It just kinda stinks, I don't know what's going to happen." "It's kinda hard right now," Massey said. "I'm also a bag boy at the (local) golf course and I don't know if I can work right now. I'm just seeing what can happen in the next couple weeks. "I'm optimistic. I hope I can, but I'm not really figuring it will actually happen. I'm optimistic, but I know it probably won't go how I want it to be." As Sayers prepares to leave for college in the fall, he could have used some spending money from the summer. "It actually sucks a lot," Sayers said. "I set up to caddy and meet new people and have a good time. I actually have to work construction. I enjoy caddying much more. "We've heard that they're just trying to find out the best time for us to come back. I'm hoping it's soon. It's kinda like a waiting game right now. I'm pretty sure all of the caddies want it back, all of us enjoy it a lot." Janik is keeping the faith and holding out hope for a last-ditch option that will keep him employed over the summer months. "What I'm thinking is there's caddying, where you're carrying bags, and there's chasing, where you're next to the carts, running and giving them distances," he said. "So I really think that if we did wear masks and gloves, we could still chase, because we're never really near the people. I feel like if they limited it to that, we'd be fine." At least it would be something. Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on Twitter.