HAMILTON, ONT. — Talk about a moment of a lifetime for a self-proclaimed golf
nut.
Paul Emerson, of Aurora, Ont., stepped inside the ropes to caddie for C.T.
Pan after Pan’s regular caddie, Mike “Fluff” Cowan, took a hearty tumble on some slick grass and couldn’t continue. (Cowan, 76, will reportedly recover.)
Emerson, who comes to the RBC Canadian Open as much as he can, said
they were leaving a concessions tent and walking down the third fairway at
Hamilton Golf and Country Club and saw Shane Lowry and Pan hit their
approach shots when they heard “a big tumble and a big sound” and “Fluff
had wiped out.”
“We didn’t see him wipe out, but we heard him wipe out. We saw him on the ground. He was getting up very, very slowly,” Emerson said. “We just watched it all happen and then Lowry’s caddie picked up his own bag, and he picked up Pan’s bag and started walking up the hole.
“As he was walking Fluff off the hole, over to the medic, I just said, ‘Do you need a hand?’ and he said, ‘Yes please.’ ”
Emerson then took the bib off Cowan, picked up the bag, and got to work. The moment, meanwhile, was going viral on social media.
“Heart was pumping a little bit. I’m a golf nut,” Emerson said. “Walked up and was shaking hands with Lowry and his caddie, just like, ‘Hey how are you?’ And that hole went pretty quickly. Got up on the next tee and we had a little time to wait (but) had my phone going off.
“I joked around about how I was hoping to have a nice view on the fourth
hole.”
Emerson said the Taiwanese golfer admitted he “wasn’t very chatty” at the best of times but he offered to do anything Pan wanted. He was asked to stay off the green but said Pan was otherwise very friendly.
On the fifth fairway, Mike Campbell, who works in caddie services at the club, came in to replace Emerson. He let Pan choose, but the player went with the man who had local knowledge of the club.
Campbell caddied for Pan until they got to the 10th tee.
At that point Pan’s wife, Michelle, had arrived. She has caddied for him in the past and was unsure if he would want her on Sunday. Fortunately, Al Riddell — who is fellow Tour member Paul Barjon’s caddie — lives in Hamilton and was watching everything unfold on TV. He came right over and got on the bag for the final nine holes. Pan knows Riddell from when Riddell used to work as a staffer on PGA Tour Canada.
With a big smile Lowry acknowledged Riddell in the way only an affable Irishman could.
“Fourth caddie? That’s a f—king record now,” Lowry said to Pan.
For Emerson — who plays a lot he said but, with a laugh, admits he’s not very good — it was the “crispness” of the shots he got to see up close that impressed him the most about the Tour pros. Emerson had caddied once before for a friend-of-a-friend at the pro-am of the CPKC Women’s Open when it was played at Magna Golf Club near his home in Aurora.
This was much different.
“It was really cool being that close for sure,” he said. And as far as the rest of day goes? Emerson said he’ll be cheering for Canadian Mackenzie Hughes and is hoping third-round leader Bob MacIntyre comes back to the field to make it interesting. Priority one, though, is a wardrobe update.
“I almost want to change my shirt,” Emerson said with a big smile, “because a lot of people are stopping me.”
Pan ended up shooting a 1-under 69 Sunday, including an eagle hole-out from 121 yards on No. 12, with Riddell, the fill-in caddie, on his bag.