Augusta National celebrates legacy of Black caddies at Masters

Japan Times

10-04-2025

Thirty years ago this week, on the 18th green of the Augusta National Golf Club, a caddie comforted his weeping player, hugging him tight and supporting him. It was their second Masters victory together — 11 years after the first one. The player's tears were of joy, but also of relief after a week where emotion off the course had been running through the tournament.
Ben Crenshaw, the 19-time PGA Tour champion, and Carl Jackson, among the most famous Augusta National caddies, were that pair. Jackson had been on Crenshaw's bag at the Masters since 1976, and the pair had been in contention several times since their first victory in 1984.
But that week was different. The tournament started just days after Crenshaw's mentor and teacher, Harvey Penick, had died, adding an emotional weight to what Crenshaw called his favorite tournament.
The image of a tall Black caddie supporting a bent-over white golfer showed more than victory and relief. It captured the bond between two men who had become friends.
"Ben was hovered over,' Jackson said in an interview last month. "I said to him, 'It's going to be OK. You just won the Masters.' He had a lot to carry on his mind during the tournament that week, thinking about Harvey Penick.'
Crenshaw said that the two were in sync at the 1995 Masters.
"We've been in the heat many, many times,' he said in an interview last month, referring to that feeling of being close to victory. "It's just so much fun. It's what you strive for. To have pulled off winning the Masters twice, and with Carl, is one of my warmest memories.'
By that point, they had developed trust over 20 years together. It was Jackson, after all, who noticed something different about Crenshaw's swing on the range during that '95 Masters week and suggested a change.
"He knew me very well,' Crenshaw said. "He knew how I was feeling. What my shots were like. He just had a wonderful intuition. I depended on him a lot.'
Their win opened up interest into Jackson's bigger story and Augusta National's all-Black caddies. Now, three decades after the image from that victory, the role of those caddies is being celebrated in Augusta, Georgia, with a sculpture in the Sand Hills neighborhood, where Jackson grew up, and with a documentary based on his life, "Rise Above,' released late last year.
Until 1982, every golfer playing in the Masters had to use an Augusta National caddie. Hord Hardin, the chair at the time, changed the rule, and the next year, golfers were allowed to bring their own caddie. It marked the start of a very different caddie corps at the club.
"What a lot of these caddies knew was how to read people,' said Ward Clayton, author of "The Legendary Caddies of Augusta National' (2024). "They had a smorgasbord of skills. One guy might be the best green reader they ever had. Another guy is the best yardage guy. Another might be able to read the personality of who he was caddying for.'
And many of them were known by colorful nicknames. Willie Perteet, known as Cemetery, was President Dwight Eisenhower's caddie. Nathaniel Avery, known as Iron Man, caddied for Arnold Palmer when he won Masters titles in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964.
In 1971, when Charlie Coody won the Masters, he had caddie Walter Pritchett, known as Cricket, who hadn't told his day job that he was at Augusta National. As Coody played himself into contention on Saturday, Cricket began to worry about the TV coverage.
"Cricket looks at Coody and says 'What time does CBS TV start today?'' Clayton said. "Coody says, 'Why do you need to know that?' Cricket said, 'I drive a bus in Atlanta, and I said I was going to visit my sick aunt, and I didn't know you were going to play this well.'"
So on the holes with TV cameras, Cricket covered his face with a towel. "Charlie Coody insists that in the final rounds, every time he looked up he laughed when he saw Cricket with the towel over his head,' Clayton said. "It kept him relaxed.'
Jackson, whose nickname was Skillet, is among the last surviving members of those Augusta National Black caddies. He said the caddies worked to memorize the course and its greens; they succeeded by knowing how to size up the player they had that day.
"We had to learn how to caddie just by eyesight,' he said. "I would take a guy, watch him hit a 7-iron that was a decent shot, and from that point on your instincts picked up on just how far every other club goes.'
Dropping out of school to support his family, Jackson began working as a caddie at 14. His first break at Augusta National was with Jackson Stephens, who was known as Jack, an investment banker from Little Rock, Arkansas, and the future chair of Augusta National.
"He was a great putter. He made as many putts around Augusta National as Ben Crenshaw,' said Jackson, who began to caddie for Stephens in 1961. "He thought I was the best reader of the greens, even before I was 20 years old. I got to be with him every time he was there at Augusta. Then he hired me, and I moved to Arkansas. I was always traveling back and forth. He trusted me and got me ready for Ben Crenshaw.'
Because Augusta National is a winter club that closes in May and reopens in the fall, the caddies would go elsewhere in the summer. Jackson worked and lived with the Stephens family, where he helped manage their properties.
In the early 1980s, Stephens took Jackson as his partner in a friendly match at Augusta National.
At that time, it was a rarity for a Black golfer or caddie to play the course. In 1975, Lee Elder became the first Black man to play in the Masters. (The club would not admit its first Black member until 1990.)
"It surprised me,' Jackson recalled. "He was the last member at the course that particular weekend. He said, 'Carl, you and I are going to play golf today.' He said, 'Go over to the pro shop and tell Bob Kletcke [the head pro] that we're going to play him and his partner today.''
Jackson said it was as much a surprise to him as anyone else.
"I had to go find shoes and clubs and get ready myself," he said. "By the time I was ready, it was all over the golf club that I was going out to play the course with Jack Stephens. All the caddies were out there. All the people who worked in the clubhouse came out."
Jackson remembers hitting a perfect drive off the first tee, a shot he had advised players on for decades, but had never hit himself. His lone birdie that day came on the 15th hole.
Overall, Jackson caddied in 54 Masters tournaments, 39 of those for Crenshaw. Other players included Gary Player and Charlie Coe.
Today, he's still consulted. He has shared his knowledge of the greens with Jordan Spieth and his caddie Michael Greller and with Scottie Scheffler and his caddie Ted Scott.
"I figured out the greens,' Jackson said. "My book is different than the Augusta National book. Ben knew I had figured it out.'
Even the greatest caddies understand that the final decision on a shot is up to their player. On that 72nd hole in 1995, Crenshaw needed a bogey to win. He'd missed the green short and chipped up safely per Jackson's advice. He had a putt for par.
"I told him it would break left,' Jackson recalled. "He played it to break right, and it broke left.'
The ball stopped about a foot from the hole. Crenshaw tapped it in for the victory. "He got away with not listening to me on that one,' Jackson said, "because we won.'
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/sports/golf/masters-black-caddies-augusta.html
This article originally appeared in The New York Times © 2025 The New York Times Company