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A star is born Spotlight shines on Redman's 11-year-old son
SYLVANIA, Ohio -- On Wednesday afternoon, Susie Redman approached me on the putting green and asked, "Who is the youngest caddie ever?" With her husband and usual looper, Dr. Robert Parry, back in England taking care of some personal business, Redman was considering using her son John, who turned 11 on June 25, as her caddie for the Jamie Farr Kroger Classic. It seemed like just yesterday that Susie was pregnant with John -- and now he was sitting there urging me to talk his mom into using him.
"I'm just worried about the players," Redman said. "I'm not worried if he gets in my way, I just don't them to be distracted." After finding out she would be playing with Carrie Wood and Jen Hanna, I told her to give John a chance despite his not having much caddie experience. Earlier in the day, Susie had given him a crash course on raking bunkers. "You want to make them smooth and nice but you have to do it fast," Redman instructed. I then gave him a few quick pointers, including, "When your mom putts last you put the flag in," I said. When he walked away repeating the lesson out loud over and over again, I knew he would be just fine. "He was excited coming in. I don't think he got too much sleep on Wednesday night; I know I sure didn't," said Redman. "I worried about him being too young, whether or not I was doing the right thing and what the players would think if he did something wrong. But not one time did the other players have to say anything to him. In fact, one time I was standing in the wrong place and when I looked, John was where he was supposed to be." On the first tee, John looked like a veteran. He headed to the scoring tent to grab a pin sheet and made sure one end of his towel was wet. And he even had the presence to offer some good advice. "Hey, Mom, try not to hit into any of the bunkers," he said, worried about having to man the rake. But his main goal was to just stay out of the way and make it through 18 holes, which he did with flying colors. "He did a great job," said Audrey Gerdes, who caddies for Hanna. "He did better than a lot of guys who have been out here for a while." John certainly wasn't shy. On the seventh hole, he struck up an unusual conversation with Wood's caddie, David Hiroshima, who is known on tour as Quiet Dave. "He wanted to know some things about caddying, like why Audrey carried her bag on the left side," said Hiroshima. "He never seemed nervous and he was always in the right place." While being in the big leagues with his mom was a dream come true, John, who pitches and plays shortstop on his Spanish Fort, Ala., Little League team, had alternative motives in becoming a looper. He has been eyeing a $300 aluminum baseball bat. It would have taken him forever to save up for the object of his affection, the Connexion VSF, on his normal $10-a-week allowance. "He said, 'Mom, I'm saving you a lot of money this week,' so I think I owe him a nice bat," Redman smiled. For Redman, the 2001 season has been a struggle. Heading into the week she was No. 129 on the money list and hadn't made the cut in nine of her last 10 events. Even though she missed playing on the weekend by one stroke, John proved to be a breath of fresh air on the course for his mom. "He inspired me," Redman said. "He would say, 'Come on, Mommy, get a birdie,' or, 'Nice par, Mom.' When you see it through the eyes of a child, that keeps it in perspective. You can't take it too seriously. It's the way I make my living, but sometimes we forget about having fun." Despite being a little tired, John enjoyed his couple of days in the sun. "It was what I thought it would be -- it was hard," John said of his first round as a caddie. "It's fun but it hurt my feet really bad. It was hard going up the hills. That's the only thing that bothered me." On Friday morning, after opening up the local newspaper, The (Toledo) Blade, John's tired dogs all of sudden didn't bother him. "Hey, I must have done all right," John said with a big smile as he got ready for his second round. "I made the front page." Tom Hanson, a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus section, is a longtime caddie on the LPGA Tour. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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