Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
When local caddie Conor McGinley first heard the U.S. Amateur Championship was coming to Merion Golf Club, he didn\u2019t want anything to do with it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just going to go out to the Hamptons and I don\u2019t need to deal with this stuff,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
But then he saw Stuart Grehan, an Irish golfer, win the 131st British Amateur Championship on June 20, and thought, \u201cHold on a minute.\u201d <\/p>\n
McGinley, who has been a caddie for 24 years and is a golf fanatic, knew only four people in the history of golf had ever won the British Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the same year, and one of them was Bobby Jones in 1930 at Merion Golf Club. <\/p>\n
McGinley was put in contact with Grehan by a mutual friend on Facebook, got on a phone call with him, and made his case for why he should be Grehan\u2019s caddie.<\/p>\n
\u00bb READ MORE: Norristown\u2019s Joshua Ryan earns the top seed entering match play at the 126th U.S. Amateur Championship<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve caddied for every level, so I\u2019m more than capable of caddying for you,\u201d he recalled saying to Grehan. \u201cBut this is all up to you now. Instead of bringing your father-in-law or your brother or whoever, come and go with a proper local caddie because that is huge, especially at Merion.\u201d <\/p>\n Forty-four local Merion caddies were on the bag for the world\u2019s best amateur this week, with 11 advancing to match play. For many of those caddies, they believe it is a major advantage.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see it right away because you\u2019re walking with guys who aren\u2019t Merion caddies and you can see them taking lines and you can see them missing putts and you can see them even misreading all types of greens,\u201d said LaRue Temple, who has caddied at Merion for 29 years and for athletes ranging from Eli Manning to Rachel Kuehn, a member of Team USA who won the 2022 Curtis Cup at Merion. \u201cYou can see them doing things that a local caddie would be like, \u2018That is not a good idea.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n The major edge for golfers using local caddies is their understanding of the grain in the greens and the layout of each hole. The caddies at Merion know where to miss each shot and what targets and line to take off each tee. They have seen almost every hole location during their rounds at Merion, Temple said, so they are able to tell players the right part of the green to aim at.<\/p>\n Many of the local caddies grew up in the area or have been working at Merion for almost 30 years. <\/p>\n Sean McConnell, who started caddying at Merion in 2021, graduated from Haverford<\/a> High School in 1992 and watched the 1989 U.S. Amateur when Chris Patton won at Merion. <\/p>\n \u201cI grew up around here and was like, \u2018Maybe I\u2019ll get to play Merion one day,\u2019 and now I walk it every day,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t take it for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n His son, Austin McConnell, got him the job. Austin, who is a sophomore at Penn State<\/a> and an Evans Scholar, started caddying at Merion in April 2021 and knew his dad had some knowledge of the sport since he played at Methodist University and graduated in 1997. <\/p>\n Both Sean and Austin caddied in the championship, with Austin advancing to match play, caddying for 17-year-old Dawson Lew from Canada. <\/p>\n