I think it's a double-breaker: Bernd Wiesberger and Shane Koeries study a putt. They will need all their skills to master the tricky greens at Augusta. I think it's a double-breaker: Bernd Wiesberger and Shane Koeries study a putt. They will need all their skills to master the tricky greens at Augusta.
John Goliath
BEAUTY, he said as the ball left the face of my driver on a warm autumn afternoon at the fourth hole of the Wellington golf club. “And the beast”, was the follow-up remark when Shane Koeries actually saw that I had hooked my ball to the left. His friends in our four-ball giggled, because sarcasm is par – excuse the pun – for the course when it comes to Koeries.
And despite his status of caddying on the European and PGA Tour for one of the world’s best golfers, Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, Koeries still just wants to fool around, make jokes and be known as just one of the guys.
Getting him to do an interview needed plenty of persuasion, because he “doesn’t like this sort of thing”. He also only spends about a week in his hometown in the Boland, before jetting off to a new destination.
Koeries doesn’t like a lot of attention, and for him to be rubbing shoulders with the best golfers in the world is not really exciting, “it’s just a job”. However, you can see the sparkle in his eyes when he talks about golf, a game he started playing in the early 1980s with an old golf ball and a piece of iron.
It was because he needed to go look for balls next to his local golf club to play with that he started to get into caddying. And it’s that deep love for the game, and going to caddy when he needed to make money, that he finds himself carrying Wiesberger’s bag for the second year in a row at the US Masters at Augusta National.
Koeries has also carried for Branden Grace and Trevor Immelman when they were playing junior golf and in the amateur ranks, and he actually started caddying for Wiesberger after being on Grace’s bag during his time at the European tour school.
“I caddied for Branden when he won the SA Amateur title and after a few years on the Sunshine Tour, his parents asked me to caddy for him on the Challenge Tour to try and get his European Tour card,” Koeries, who plays off a five handicap, said. “The challenge tour is tough; if you make 30 euros then it feels like you made some money. Not many players have their own caddies, because it’s tough and expensive. If you miss the cut as a caddy, you have to try and find someone to caddy for to make money for the last two days.
“Branden and I missed the cut in a tournament in France. I then told someone I’m going to ask Bernd if I can help him out. I don’t know why I didn’t do it on the Saturday, but on Sunday he came to ask me to carry his bag.
“We were about four shots behind going into that last round, and we ended up shooting a 63 to win by two strokes. He then gave me 700 euros, and it was the most money I have made for one day’s work.
“Bernd’s tour card was then sorted for the next year. Another caddy then approached him but he said if he is going to take anybody, it’s going to be me. I told Branden that Bernd approached me, and in 2010 October I started carrying for Bernd on the European tour.”
For Koeries, his first Masters was a surreal experience. While he thought it was just going to be another week on the job, he quickly knew that the Masters week is something pretty special.
“I couldn’t understand it ... there were people in the gallery who wanted to pay me for my white overall!” he exclaimed. “You get one green cap for the week but people want that cap, that sweaty cap! Even Bernd and his coach wanted the cap!”
“I thought of it as just another week on the job, but it’s not. The organisers do well to control the situation, but it’s quite chaotic for everyone involved, because everybody wants a piece of the players.
“But on the driving range, only one coach and the caddy are allowed with the player. So that is a bit different than the other majors. At the tournaments like the Open Championship, you don’t even get room to move, because everybody is there. At Augusta, even the technical sponsors can’t even get onto the range.
“On a quiet day, when there is nothing happening there, Augusta doesn’t look the same like it looks on television.
“The people give a form to the holes, especially the first few holes. When you are standing on the tee, you can see the people standing next to the holes. It’s an amazing thing to behold.”
While Koeries is hoping that his man will prevail at the Masters, he says you don’t have to look further than the top 10 golfers in the world. Australian heavyweights Adam Scott and Jason Day, who have won twice in America this year, have good records at Augusta.
“If you take the last month or so, all the big guns have been playing well. Adam Scott has played well, Rory (McIlroy) has played well, Jason Day has been on fire, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth. I think the winner is going to come out of one of those guys. But I’m obviously hoping that Bernd will be there competing on the last day,” Koeries said.
“The South Africans have a chance, but there are a big pool of golfers who can win the Masters. Ten years ago there was only one man, Tiger Woods, but now you have Rory, Jordan, Bubba (Watson), Phil (Mickelson), Jason and many others.
“The gap between the most talented player and least talented players is marginal. But the difference is in the head. If you can get an edge over a guy mentally, it’s more than half the battle won.”
So, will Shane be a fan and take pictures of his heroes at Augusta? “No,” he said.
“If I went there in a different environment, I would have probably experienced it differently. But for me, it’s a job. Someone asked me to take photos of all the places where we play, and then I asked him if he takes pictures at his job?”
Yes, typical Shane. He just wants to be one of the guys, but he will have a front-row seat at Augusta this weekend.