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Loran Smith, a Georgia icon, has been to 67 consecutive Masters
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Loran Smith, a Georgia icon, has been to 67 consecutive Masters
During Thursdayâs opening round of the 90th edition of the tournament, Smith, 87, roamed the clubhouse looking to catch a moment with Gary Player. He later returned to the media center to write a column on Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, who hit the ceremonial tee shots that morning.
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True story…I wanted to put it in my book but to date I still haven’t written it so I’ll share it here…for the life of me I cannot remember what year it was, I want to say early 90s, I caddied at Augusta National for a couple of years, it was the only way poorer people like me could play the course. In any event, on one occasion I was honored to caddy for Loran. It was a great day. He was (and I imagine still is) a very friendly man with a low keyed charismatic personality, but he wasn’t much of a tipper back then let me tell you, lol. His excuse was that the members told him tipping was not allowed. Most guests ignored the directive and often slipped a little cash into their caddy’s hand during the obligatory 18th green handshake. Not LORAN…
As for the round of golf, for those that don’t know, Mr. Smith had a very decent golf game back then, I imagine a mid-single digit hdcp. The one thing I absolutely hated, caddying for LORAN, was that he took a perfectly straight shallow divot that extended about 10 inches long after every iron shot. The reason I hated it, you ask? As caddies we not only carried the member/ guest’s heavy arse golf bag, but also had to carry a shoulder bag full of grass seed and sand. I guarantee you I went thru 5 bags of the seed mixture caddying for LORAN that day!
But back to the main point of this story, being a huge pup fan I was overjoyed getting to carry the famous LORAN Smith’s bag. On the first tee LORAN hit one of his patented low draws up the left edge of the fairway. As caddies, rule number 1, we were trained to not give yardage or advice to guests unless they asked. When we arrived at his ball I noticed Loran was looking at the yardage on the sprinkler head and quietly calculating his yardage. To Mr. smith, I apologize, lol, but as a rabid Dawg fan I couldn’t resist…in my deepest Larry Munson scowling voice I looked at him and asked “LORAN…what do you got?” Kind of caught him by surprise as he looked and stared at me blank faced! Then he let out one of his patented Loran Smith chuckles and said that’s funny right there, that will be enough of that! We had a pleasant round.
Oh, I forgot to add…Loran, if you were missing a few Pro V1s when you got home after your round that day, I tipped myself you cheap rat bahstahd…lol
As a physician making rounds at an Athens nursing home, I had the privilege of seeing Loran Smith and his good friend Vince Dooley making their rounds of encouragement and kindness to many of the residents. With neither of these gentleman, it never was about the money. Unfortunately Gramster, it appears in Loran's case that applied to gratuities at the Masters!
What treasure of a life Mr Smith has had . I remember he lived next to Mr Trippi but I didn’t know he was from Wrightsville . I hope he breaks 70 in a few years .