Looping the CPO

There were a couple of snickers early on Saturday morning. I had just donned the bib, beginning my foray into the world of caddying. I had expected a bit of this. I don’t believe the Corey Park Open had many caddies in the history of the event.

But the snickering was short lived. Soon there would be a buzz around the golf course. Word was out that the caddy was not just hauling clubs, but prompt and ready with a club for his golfer. The caddy had the 9 iron out for him well before it was asked of him. The caddy knew which irons he should hit. The buzz was building.

The buzz was a roar when Corey Park won the tournament. Though he choked on a birdie putt on 8, and shanked a ball into the woods on 9, he was able to take home the title on a tiebreaker.

The talk in the clubhouse was not about the winner.

It was about the caddy.

The caddy was the topic of conversation. That is when the bids started coming in. What would it take for the caddy to jump ship to a different golfer? My “pay” for this job was 25 Hooters wings and a pitcher of beer. What can I say; I go for a cheap price. I expect the bids to come flying in next June. A good looper is hard to find.

I make a mental note in case I return next year. Do not wear a silk Hawaiian shirt. Not only does the bag slide off your shoulder easily, but the bib over the shirt will make you sweat like a pig. It was humid on the course to begin with. Add a bib with a sown on patch covering the majority of your chest and belly and it is a lot warmer. My shirt was soaked by the 4th hole. Thankfully the foursome I was with made sure I had enough liquid in me to keep going. Let the record show the first beer was cracked at 8:28.

Let the record also show the flies were a bitch! They were big ones too. Looked like a hybrid of bee and fly. They were annoying the crap out of me. It was bad enough it was humind that we didn't need these flies buzzing around.

That may have led to my case of "caddy elbow" on Sunday. I may have to file a lawsuit against my employer for that one.

After brining home the trophy, we headed to BW3s for some lunch and more beer. I fielded a couple more offers to caddy for others. I may have to go to Ebay on this one. After lunch I got in a nap before heading out to Brookfield Days to watch Johnny 3 Note. Not much of a crowd at this little festival hidden behind some ball diamonds. We got there around 8:15 or so to find that there weren’t many people in the tent watching the bad. Maybe 3 dozen, which I would say is light. There were others hanging around on the fringes listening in as well.

One thing I noticed right away and had to mention to Corey is how they have gotten better over the past year. I re-read the first post I had on them and am sad that I didn’t put down the one thing that bothered me about them in the post. It was the one thing that I pointed out to Corey that I thought they needed to improve on. Stage presence. Last year, I saw a bunch of guys just standing around microphones barely moving. Now each of them moves around the stage and into the crowd. They look comfortable up there and interact with each other a lot more. Still sound very good.

This show wasn’t perfect though. There were a couple spots where they goofed up. I also wish they would drop “Hey Ya”. If not, rock it up a bit. Every band and their mother are doing that song. Another thing I would like to see is them change up "Cowboy" by Kid Rock. Why are you singing Kid Rock's name? It would make more sense to change it to Johnny 3 Note.

Thankfully the last set was filled with a bunch of better music. Starting the set with Think Lizzy was good. I couldn’t help but wonder when the last time I heard someone do “Joy to the World” or “Bad Leroy Brown”. Good tunes done very well. Bottom line is it should be a very good Summerfest show.