By David Westin
Augusta Chronicle Staff Writer

Augusta, Ga. - The Augusta National caddy stories stop, for the most part, the day Craig Stadler won the 1982 Masters.

By the following year, the club had lifted the restriction on using only Augusta National caddies in the Masters. An era was over for the likes of Ironman, Cemetery and Pappy.

That still leaves 48 years of tales from the caddyshack, some of them no doubt embellished by the passage of time.

From the inception of the Masters in 1934 until the lifting of the ban against non-Augusta National caddies 13 years ago, the Augusta National caddy was a constant presence on the course, with his white jump suit with green lettering. Today, they are an invaluable source for insight about the players, pre-1983.

When the Augusta National lifted the ban on outside caddies, some golfers, such as Ben Crenshaw and Bruce Lietzke, continued to use Augusta National caddies. The number of Augusta National caddies, however, has never been more than five or six in a Masters.

What an era is was, though.

``It had a spirit about it; it was a festive-type spirit,'' said Carl Jackson, a former Augusta National caddy who this week will caddy for two-time Masters champion Crenshaw for the 20th straight year at the tournament.

Jackson, 49, started caddying at the Augusta National when he was 14 years old. vBefore hooking up with Crenshaw, Jackson caddied for Davis Love Jr., Gary Player, Tony Jacklin, Bruce Devlin, Steve Melynk, Charlie Coe, R.H. Sikes, Mike Souchak, Billy Burke and Downing Gray.

Gray, a former U.S. Amateur champion, seemed to have a different caddy each year. Though Gray was a low amateur award winner, caddies preferred a pro who had a chance to win the tournament.

``I think we all had to go through Downing Gray,'' Jackson said, referring to young caddies.

Jackson has a treasure trove of Augusta National memories from the bygone time.

``My first year, in 1961, I caddied for Billy Burke,'' Jackson said. ``He played in a white dress shirt and a necktie.''

In 1964, Jackson had the bag of struggling 26-year-old Australian Bruce Devlin, who would go on to win eight times on the PGA Tour and earn nearly $1 million. Devlin currently plays on the Senior PGA Tour, where he has career earnings approaching $2 million.

``That year there was a big story that if he didn't have success in the Masters he was going back home to Australia to be a plumber,'' Jackson said.

Devlin finished fourth and never had to learn how to unclog a drain.

THE GREAT Augusta National caddies from the early years of the tournament are getting up in age. Some are dead, such as Nathaniel ``Ironman'' Avery, Leon McCladdie and Willie ``Cemetery'' Poteat.

The legendary Willie ``Pappy'' Stokes, who caddied for five Masters winners, is 75, frail and has arthritis in one leg. Willie Peterson, Jack Nicklaus' caddy for his first five Masters victories, is retired and living in Florida.

Ironman caddied for all four of Palmer's Masters victories, while McCladdie was Tom Watson's right-hand man in both his victories.

``Ironman was the best caddy up there,'' said Stokes, his brother-in-law.

Cemetery caddied in the Masters but was best known for being President Dwight David Eisenhower's caddy whenever Ike made one of his visits (the total numbered 29 during his two terms as president) to the Augusta National.

Palmer recalls that Ironman ``kind of gave me a little push to play. That was the major thing. His enthusiasm was natural. It wasn't anthing he thought he had to do. Everything he did was out of enthusiasm for me to win.''

Cemetery and Ironman were just two of many caddies with colorful nicknames. Most of the caddies were given their monikers by Willie Mason, who was the caddy master at the Augusta Country Club, located adjacent the Augusta National. Almost all the caddies started at ``the Club'' as youngsters and then moved on to Augusta National.

``He gave everybody nicknames,'' Jariah Beard said of Mason. ``He always called me `Little Earl,' because that was my dad's name.''

Other nicknames were Stovepipe, 8-Ball, Marble Eye, Daybreak, Long Distance, Cigarette, Pokie, Rat, First Baseman, Mutt and Fireball.

Cemetery was also called Dead Man.

In an interview with sports commentator John Derr at the 1953 Masters, Cemetery confirmed a story Derr had heard about how the nickname originated.

Related in Derr's 1996 book Don't Forget to Wind the Clock, Derr told Cemetery that his fellow caddies ``said when you were younger, you were quite a ladies' man and that one day you were over at a friend's house, romancing his wife, and he came home and caught you.

``He pulled out a razor and sliced your throat pretty good. You escaped and left Augusta. When you friends asked what had happened to you, the razor man told them, `You won't be seeing him anymore. He's a dead man.'ƒ''

Cemetery told Derr the story was accurate, with one exception.

``No, it wasn't his wife, it was his girlfriend,'' Cemetery said.

``He stayed in the hospital three or four months,'' Pappy Stokes said of Cemetery. ``They thought he was dead. When he came out of there, they called him Cemetery.''

Beard thinks Ironman got his nickname because the tips of a couple of his fingers were missing.

``It might have been something that happened as a kid where a firecracker blew up in his hand,'' Beard said. ``People would say, `What did you think, you were an iron man or something?'''

Stokes was nicknamed Pappy by the late Augusta National chairman Clifford Roberts. Other highly-respected caddies are Jackson, Ernest Nipper and Matthew Palmer. Nipper caddied for Gary Player until 1970, and Palmer caddied for Billy Casper when he won in 1970.

``If I got out with any of those guys, I was happy just to be walking down the fairway with them,'' Augusta National caddy Tommy Bennett said. ``I tried to learn from those guys.''

Pappy, who is living in the Hemingway Services boarding house on Tobacco Road, is the only man to have caddied for four different Masters champions. The victories came in 1938 (Henry Picard), 1948 (Claude Harmon), 1951 (Ben Hogan), 1953 (Hogan again) and 1956 (Jack Burke Jr.).

``Pappy's family had property on the course and he lived there for a long time,'' Jackson said. ``He was `the man' around there for years.''

Indeed, Pappy was born on May 22, 1920 on what had been the Fruitlands Nurseries and would become the Augusta National Golf Club. The Fruitlands closed in 1919 and ground-breaking for the Augusta National started in 1931. Pappy helped clear the course of trees as Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie did the routing of the holes.

``I was born and raised there,'' Pappy said. ``It was a farm when I was young. I went out there every morning and I'd plow for cotton and corn. When they started building the course, I remember cutting down trees on No. 10 and 11.''

Once the Augusta National was built, Pappy was one of the first caddies out on the course. He didn't have far to walk; his family's house stood near the clubhouse.

``I could always caddy,'' Pappy said. ``I was raised on a golf course. I was the ace caddy at the Augusta National. The members would ask for Pappy. They'd say, `Where's Pappy at?'ƒ''

``Pappy was a great caddy and a good guy,'' said Otis `Buck' Moore, a caddy in 24 Masters and the father of University of Massachusetts point guard Ricky Moore. ``He took pride in what he was doing. He loved the game. You couldn't help but like him. He was comical (off the golf course). He'd always say something funny if you had a bad day to pep you up.''

Bennett said Pappy ``would tell you a story, and just the way he'd say it, he was so funny.''

``Pappy taught most of us how to caddy,'' Jackson said. ``He knew the golf course like the back of his hand. He could be in the middle of a fairway, look up at the green and say a certain putt was going to break 6 inches to the right.''

``When Pappy caddied for Jackie Burke, Mr. Roberts told him whatever Pappy tells you, you do it,'' said current Augusta National caddy Pee Wee Reid.

Pappy took caddying seriously and expected the other caddies to do the same.

If you were lackidasical, ``Pappy would say, `God's got his eyes on you,'ƒ'' Reid said.

``I didn't go out there on the golf course to play,'' Pappy says, ``I went out there to try to make a living. Some of them couldn't caddy; they were just bag toters. They never did nothing but tote a bag.''

Jackson is `the man' among Augusta National caddies today in the Masters. This will be his 34th straight Masters, the longest-running current streak among caddies. Of course, he has carried the bag for both of Crenshaw's victories.

``We have been through so much together there,'' Crenshaw said of Jackson. ``He knows me very well. He knows that golf course as well as anyone. It's sort of different the way we approach it. I don't rely on yardage on the golf course that heavily. We know how certain shots play. We're very much a team there.''

``Ben has a saying that of all the years I've caddied for him, I've misread one putt,'' Jackson said.

It happened about 15 years ago, on the par-5 15th hole, Jackson said.

``It was a silly mistake,'' Jackson said. ``It was an eagle putt and I probably went brain dead by the time we decided where he was going to putt the ball. I knew better. My mind just went somewhere else.''

These days, Jackson is a full-time caddy on the PGA Tour for Sean Murphy. Jackson and Crenshaw had a run together on the PGA Tour in the early 1990s, but it ended after two seasons.

``I don't know why, but I don't think we work that well as a team in other places,'' Crenshaw said. ``We got to feeling pressure. I was trying too hard for him, and he was trying so hard for me. It just didn't work on a full-time basis. We just have a special relationship. I see him every week (on the PGA Tour). We talk all the time.''

There is another former Augusta National caddy who is well-known in golf circles, but not for his caddying. Augusta native Jim Dent, now a star on the Senior PGA Tour, caddied for Bob Rosburg in the Masters in the early 1960s.

Continued: The caddies remember a fesh-faced Masters rookie named Nicklaus...