They were long a curious fixture of the American sports scene: black men in white jumpsuits, striding just behind a white male in frequently garish polyesters.
They were the black caddies at the Masters, the renowned golf tournament, and are the subject of “The Men the Masters Forgot” in the April Golf Digest.
As New York Times golf writer Jaime Diaz explains, the private Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia always mandated that Masters entrants use the club’s caddies, all local black men employed by a club that didn’t have blacks as members. But pressure from pampered players led to a 1983 change whereby the club let the pro players use their regular tour caddies.
Diaz notes that while the caddies “symbolized the plantation aura of the Masters,” which will be played again next week, the event was both a financial and emotional boon to the caddies. Not only did they often make more in the one week than the few thousand dollars made the rest of the year, but they also shared a spotlight with famous athletes. Being replaced was traumatic, with many heading to other jobs and scrounging to exist.
“We just got erased, like we never existed,” says Jariah Beard, who caddied in 25 Masters, including the 1979 victory of Fuzzy Zoeller’s, but quit Augusta after the ’83 change.
Quickly: Those wild and crazy guys and gals at Organic Gardening offer an April Fool, re-creating the Fantastic Four comic book cover premiere from 1961 to drolly push a story on how to identify soil-dwelling creatures. . . . March 29 Time is excellent on “The Temping of America,” namely corporate America’s growing reliance on inexpensive temporary workers and many citizens’ resulting sense of betrayal. . . . “Krauts!” is the simple cover line of the winter Granta, devoted to Germany and excellent on subjects ranging from the self-loathing that’s at the heart of German animus toward immigrants to a geographic “zonophobia” that still afflicts some former East Germans ($9.95, 250 W. 57th St., Suite 1316, New York, N.Y. 10107). . . . April Redbook inspects the apparently fertile field of female child molesters, said to be responsible for molesting 24 percent of all male victims and 13 percent of female victims. . . . March 26 Entertainment Weekly has expected pre-Oscar movie minutiae, including tips on dissecting the hidden contractual mandates that lead to those often eye-wearying credits on movie posters. . . . March 29 New Yorker and April Buzz, a monthly on Los Angeles, both profile legendary Hollywood agent Irving “Swifty” Lazar, 84, though only Buzz has an interview, including his assertion that client Truman Capote’s demise “was a direct result of his homosexuality. It overcame his talent.” Buzz also has ace travel writer Jan Morris’ nifty account of the “cruel mountain country” and armies of “geriatric panzers” beyond posh Palm Springs ($3.50, 11835 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 450, Los Angeles, Calif. 90064). . . . March 29 Forbes includes a puffy piece on a new book bashing American educational standards as too touchy-feely, by economist Thomas Sowell, a Forbes columnist (“If you read only one book this year, it should be . . .”). . . . April Outside profiles some of the meteorologists and wackos who chase after twisters in “Tornado Alley,” a slice of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. . . . The sleek premiere of Esquire Gentleman is best on the gay influence on men’s fashion, while a homage to the attire of Gary Cooper by designer Bill Blass asserts, “More than anyone, Cooper was responsible for fusing the essentially formless but wearable aesthetic of the American West with the narrow, formal silhouette of European design. That set him apart from the Gables and the Grants. That gave him American-icon status.” . . . In March 29 New Republic, John Judis lucidly explains the different kinds of “managed competition” that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health task force will likely choose between: one depending heavily on market competition and tax incentives to keep costs down, the other giving government a big role in setting budgets and overseeing the big purchasing groups central to both variations. Judis concludes that neither would attain the three goals of expanding health coverage, curbing costs and maintaining the quality of care. . . . Oh, speaking from the grave in the March 23 tabloid Sun, Elvis says, “Billy Ray Cyrus is the second coming of me,” proving that he still doesn’t have any taste.
