WFXG - Augusta, GA (September 18, 2017)
A major documentary film is using Augusta as its backdrop.
Loopers: The Caddie's Long Walk tells the history of the game of golf, from a caddie's perspective and Augusta National is featured.
In a film hoping to give the caddies their due, Loopers: The Caddie's Long Walk has traveled across the world to St. Andrews in Scotland, but a film about the history of golf can't really be a film about golf without Augusta National .
You may recognize the name William Avery, he's a former Westside and Duke basketball superstar, but it's just recently that he's learning more about his great uncle, Nathaniel 'Iron Man' Avery, Arnold Palmer's caddie for his 4 Masters victories.
"I think the first time I heard it I was actually in my 20s and I'm thinking to myself, why didn't I know this earlier? This is a big deal," said Avery.
Ward Clayton, caddie expert and author of Men of the Bag, has spent years chronicling the stories and lives of caddies.
He says people have no idea how important these men on the bag are.
"Still to this day people think all they do is lug a 50 pound bag around the golf course. They don't understand the intricacies of the work they do beforehand, walking the golf course, doing the yardage book so they know the golf course inside and out. They know the player inside and out, they know the weather," said Clayton.
Caddies like Iron Man Avery are so vital in the history of caddies. At Augusta National, African-American caddies who worked for the club were the only ones allowed to carry the bags until 1983. Oftentimes they knew the layout of the course better than the players, serving as a crucial crutch to a player's victory. Augustans Pappy Stokes, Carl Jackson, Willie Peterson and Jerry Beard are featured along with Iron Man.
"I had a lot of individual success, but what he did, was historical and will be there forever," said Avery.
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