Caddy

Leaving spring training, the Orioles' pecking order among catchers was pretty clear. Brook Fordyce would be the starter, the first time he could say that heading into a season. Greg Myers, the subject of trade speculation since touching down in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., remained the primary backup while still in uniform. Then came Fernando Lunar, an offensively challenged acquisition during last summer's roster purge, and utility player Mike Kinkade. Once Myers departed, Lunar would become Fordyce's caddy - his only chance to carry a club.

Greg Puga was 15 at the time, a newcomer to a game not many played in his East Los Angeles neighborhood. Tiger Woods was 10, and already his legend was starting to grow around Southern California. Yet they were members of the same Industry Hills Golf Club junior team. "He was just a little guy, but he had one of the purest putting strokes I had ever seen," Puga said recently. "Usually kids that age are pretty awkward, but you could tell he was something special." This week, the two might bump into each other on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National as participants, if not quite competitors, in the 65th Masters.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Fred Funk was out to dinner last month with some friends during the Doral-Ryder Open at a landmark Miami restaurant known for its hard-shell crabs and long waits. Theirs was going to be 2 1/2 hours until one member of the group was recognized. "We instantly got a table," Funk recalled last week. It wasn't because of Funk, the former University of Maryland golf coach whose profile has increased steadily throughout an 11-year PGA Tour career that has produced five wins and more than $6.5 million in earnings.

EVERY HOME REPAIR guy likes to admire a job well-done. Gazing at a successfully completed project gives him a feeling of pride, a sense of accomplishment.Then there is the other end of the spectrum, the job you botched. It is an embarrassment. It reminds you of your limitations. Every time you walk past it, you look down at your shoes, or in my case recently, down at my bare feet.I botched the shower caddy job. Instead of standing up straight in the corner of the bathroom shower, providing a stable home for bars of soap and bottles of hair care products, my shower caddy is a slouch.

Name: Craig DayClub: Turf Valley CCAge: 52Born: HagerstownYears a professional: 34Years at present club: 28Career highlights: Being able to be a PGA professional and to be associated with such veteran club professionals as Bill Clarke, Bill Strausbaugh, Max Elbin and Tony Marlowe, who created one of the strongest sections in the country. Learned to love the game and course environment as a young caddy at Fountain Head CC and translated that into a career of customer service. With three courses used by members and outside play, it is likely Day is the most recognizable professional in the area.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- There was a two-hole deficit to Brandi Miller to make up. There were more than three hours of rain delays to wait out. There was another new caddy -- the fourth this week -- carrying Jenny Chuasiriporn's bag here in the U.S. Women's Amateur at Barton Hills Country Club.Except for a couple of the card games she played in a hallway outside the locker room during the second delay of more than 3 1/2 hours, nothing seemed to fluster Chuasiriporn yesterday.Even missing a 2 1/2 -footer for par to close out her semifinal match on the second extra playoff hole.

You're a golf nut and you have this dream.Lately, whenever you stare out at your back yard, instead of a tool shed and rusting grill and those tacky ceramic frogs you bought at a garage sale for two bucks each, you see a shimmering putting green, beckoning like the 18th hole at Augusta National.If you only had this green, your reasoning goes, you could practice chipping and putting every evening and shave a dozen strokes off your handicap and join the PGA Tour and make lots of money and hang out with Tiger Woods and . . .Friend, you should really get a grip.

Joan Lonnberg came 500 miles to Columbia to work for free. Indeed, she paid $70 for the privilege of sweating in the summer humidity last week. All for the love of golf.Lonnberg, 50, of Boston was among 1,000 people who paid to serve as volunteers at the PGA Senior Tour's State Farm Classic, which ends today after a week at Hobbit's Glen Golf Club in Columbia's Harper's Choice village.In return for their $70, Lonnberg and her colleagues received two golf shirts -- one red and one blue, with the State Farm Classic logo -- and a pass for the course.

SAM MONTGOMERY might have been the perfect guest on that old TV show "What's My Line?" As he signed in, the panel might well have been mystified by this 64-year-old retired Chartwell resident.He's a golf caddy.Since retiring from his more conventional job selling electronic equipment, he has spent at least three days a week playing golf and another three days carrying golf bags for others."I wanted to do something to keep me in shape," he says. "When I was 12 years old, I started caddying at the Bowling Green Country Club in Pennsylvania.

BETHESDA -- Sam Montgomery is anything but your typical caddie.Your typical caddie is not retired, doesn't caddie as much as he plays, isn't a man unconcerned about making a living lugging a golf bag."To keep in shape, I play three days a week and caddie three," Montgomery said. "The seventh is a rest day, although once in a while I create the world."He smiles, pleased with his line. Montgomery is 64, retired from the electronics industry, a resident of Severna Park and a member of Chartwell Country Club who is a regular caddie at Congressional CC.In the U.S. Open that wound up yesterday, Montgomery carried for Slade Adams, a May graduate of the University of Kansas who was playing in his first PGA Tour event.