Reflections of Caddying In ’92 Masters Still Special For Richard Keene

Golf has provided Richard Keene with a lifetime of memories over the past 50 years, a journey that has cultivated countless friendships throughout his years of competition.

One of those connections forged at an Alabama junior college in 1976 later provided Keene with the unique opportunity to experience the Masters Tournament, although not in the fashion he had dreamed about as a junior golfer.

Every aspiring golfer has visions of walking the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club inside the ropes, to experience the pageantry and mystique found only in the Masters. That opportunity presented itself for Keene in 1992.

When Keene embarked on his collegiate career at powerhouse Alexander City (now Central Alabama) Community College, he crossed paths with Jim Stuart, who had transferred from the University of Florida.

The pair developed a close friendship while both earned All-America honors before Keene headed to Troy University to complete his collegiate career. Stuart matriculated to nearby Columbus State, where he was a key part of a NCAA Division II national championship in 1980.

They remained close over the years as Stuart settled in Macon, Ga. Stuart went on to win the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship in both 1990 and 1991, earning Masters invitations by virtue of his victories.

After caddying for Stuart at the 1991 U.S. Amateur staged at The Honors Course, Keene was asked by his old teammate to be on his bag at next year’s Masters. It was the culmination of a dream to experience the Augusta National from a front-row seat even though his earliest hopes were to attend as an invited participant.

Keene spent five years competing professionally on mini-tours in Central and South America as well as Florida, and advanced to final stage of PGA Tour qualifying school twice before returning to Chattanooga to become a fixture in the local amateur golf scene.

The winner of three Tennessee Mid-Amateur Championships in the ‘90s, Keene also qualified for more than a dozen USGA national events including the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur and the U.S. Public Links. He’s won more local tournaments than he can count, and has served alongside Mike Jenkins as a driving force in keeping the Chattanooga District Golf Association thriving and was inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Keene even attended the Masters as a youth, tagging along with local golf instructor Jack McKenna back in the days when you could walk up and purchase a daily ticket at the gate.

Stuart had missed the cut the previous year in his first Masters, and had gotten numerous practice rounds under his belt leading up to the ’92 event. Keene was hopeful that he could help his pal capture some magic to make it to the weekend. That didn’t unfold as he had hoped, but some priceless memories emerged from their week in Augusta.

For much of its history, Augusta National required Masters participants to use caddies supplied by the club. Although that ban was lifted in 1982, there was still an aversion to outsiders within the local caddie ranks. When Keene showed up at the caddie shack to receive his uniform, he found out quickly his presence wasn’t welcomed.

“There were still plenty of guys using Augusta caddies, and the caddie master wasn’t shy telling me how he felt about people like me taking one of his guys’ places,” Keene said. “I’d go there each morning to put on my bib and wouldn’t go back even though a bunch of the caddies hung out there.”

With that inauspicious start to his Masters experience, Keene next met Stuart for a practice round.

“We got down there Sunday morning before the tournament, and it was amazing,” Keene said. “He's got a nice little carry bag, there's nobody out there, no spectators and I thought this could be a lot of fun. But on Monday morning, we get there and he's got this huge bag that looks like it came out of ‘Caddyshack’. It's crammed full of golf balls and shoes and band aids and all sorts of stuff. I'm like, ‘What the heck are we doing?’ Then it suddenly became not so fun.”

Knowing the trek around the undulating course would only be magnified with the extra weight, Keene decided to offload some of the unnecessary baggage on the first hole.

“There’s people everywhere for the practice round, and I asked him why he had two dozen balls,” Keene said. “He said, ‘I might need them.’

“I said, ‘Listen, there’s 40,000 people here so you can’t lose the dang thing because people will run over and find it for you.’ So, I got to the first green and pulled out about ten balls and started handing them out to little kids.”

Later in the practice round, Keene’s generosity to the gallery was exposed. Stuart asked for another ball but Keene told him they were down to the last one.

“I told him ‘There's tons of balls in there,” said Stuart, who now lives in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. “When he told me he had given them all away, I said, ‘I pay for these things. Don't be doing that. If I want to give out balls, let me do it.’”

They were paired during the practice rounds with former Masters champions Bernhard Langer and Ben Crenshaw, and even played nine holes with the legendary Arnold Palmer.

“That was an amazing experience playing with Arnie,” Keene said. “People were everywhere wanting to watch him, and the crowds were ten-deep.”

It was with Crenshaw and his legendary Augusta caddie, Carl Jackson, that provided another memorable – and embarrassing – moment for Keene.

Stuart and Keene were touring the course in a practice round with a former Alexander City teammate and seven-time PGA Tour winner, John Huston. While Crenshaw was chipping and putting on the par 5 No. 13, Keene was perched on the embankment above Rae’s Creek when something caught his attention.

Stuart had learned during the previous year’s Masters that golfers occasionally drop balls into the creek during practice rounds as a ritual.

“They toss balls into Rae’s Creek as a ceremonial offering to the golf gods, hoping to get that out of their system so it wouldn’t happen in the tournament,” Stuart said.

Unaware of the tradition, Keene was focused on the pearls sitting in the shallow waters.

“I look down and there’s five or six Titleist golf balls, and I wasn’t going to leave those there,” Keene said. “So, I grab Jim’s wedge to reach down and flip them out. But I slipped on the bank and went sliding butt-first into the creek.”

The commotion focused all eyes on Keene as he stood knee-deep in the water. But thankfully the other members of his group saw the humor in his predicament.

“I turned around and Carl Jackson was standing on the bank laughing so hard he can’t even function,” Keene said. “I’m thinking he’s going to collapse he’s laughing so hard. And I can’t get out of the creek because the slope is so slippery, so I had to extend the wedge to Jackson to pull me out. I was wishing I had just drowned because there’s 10,000 people lining that hole watching this unfold.”

Thankfully, Crenshaw offered the waterlogged Keene a solution to salvage the moment.

“He walks up with tears coming down his face from laughing,” Keene said. “He said, ‘You want to know how you can get out of this?’ I told him I’d do anything at that moment. He said, ‘Take those balls you retrieved and throw them into the crowd. Just flip them up there and they’ll love you and stop laughing.’ So, I started winging balls into the gallery and they loved it.”

Augusta National is well-known for its strict adherence to protocol, and Nick Faldo’s long-time caddie, Fanny Sunesson, was not exempt from playing by their rules.

“When the caddies check in, they give you shoes, socks and a hat to wear,” Keene said. “Fanny told them she didn’t need shoes because she had a shoe contract. The official told her, ‘No ma’am, you have to wear the Adidas shoes we supply because it’s part of the uniform. But she refused to wear their shoes.

“Some guy grabs a radio and says, ‘Will someone please bring Mr. Faldo to the caddie staging area?’ He showed up about a minute later and they informed him he’d have to pick a different caddie from the pool because Fanny wouldn’t wear their shoes. He looked at her and said, ‘Get your damn shoes and let’s get out of here,’ which she did.”

Once the tournament began on Thursday, Keene was in awe of the intricate subtleties required in successfully navigating Augusta National’s elevation changes and slick greens.

“First, you can’t imagine how hilly it is, especially toting a golf bag. Then I couldn’t believe how undulating and fast the greens were,” Keene said. “It was shocking. We missed the green right on No. 11 and Jim had to chip it over the edge of that back right bunker. I told him he needed to chip it 15 feet left of the hole because if you flop it, it’s never going to stop.

“He said I was crazy, and I said, ‘You’re the boss. I’m just toting the bag.’ He flopped it perfectly, and it rolled right into the lake. I smiled at him and said, ‘Here’s another ball.’”

Even though Stuart missed the cut, their time together made for a memorable week.

“Richard knows the game and he was a good caddie,” Stuart said. “He gave me some good advice, but neither one of us did a great job of reading greens. It was good to have a friendly face out there and we enjoyed it.”

Keene and Stuart still find opportunities to compete together regularly, and that week in Augusta still serves as one of the highlights of their friendship.

“It was a great experience and I enjoyed it,” Keene said. “With Jim being a good friend, we also had some good laughs going on sometimes. We’re good enough friends to where we didn’t take things personal. It was an amazing week, looking back on it.”

Even though Keene never made it to the Masters as a competitor, he still relishes the week spent in Augusta with his good friend 32 years ago.

“I couldn’t do it again,” Keene said. “That’s a hard pull and you’re exhausted by the end of the day. By the time you get to 18 tee and you’ve still got to chug up that hill, I thought I was going to die before I got to the green.”

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Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com