After 36 years, a Greenville golfer was paired up with the same caddie on an Irish course
A recent overseas trip allowed Ralph Bouton to renew a warm acquaintance, an experience that left the Greenville man amazed at life’s unexpected joys. It happened in Ireland, where good luck is considered a national right.
The story begins 36 years ago when Bouton, then 37 years old, traveled with his father-in-law to Ireland on a golfing excursion. On the list of places to visit was the famous Lahinch Golf Club on Ireland’s northwest coast, a favorite with Americans and Europeans.
It was a busy July at the course, and local children were volunteering to be caddies. Bouton’s caddie was a cheerful 10-year-old boy named Oliver, barely taller than Bouton’s golf clubs and near the ages of Boutons own sons, ages 11, 9, and 7 at the time. “He was as cute and nice as he could be,” Bouton recalls. Before he left, Bouton had someone take a photo of him with Oliver near a towering old ruin, against the backdrop of rolling fields and cows grazing in the distance.
‘That’s Ollie!’
Flash forward to July 2022, and a lot has changed for Bouton and his wife, Becky, whose three sons are all married with children of their own. Recently retired after a career in civil engineering, Bouton, 73, decided to join a group of Greenvillians for a golf trip to Ireland led by Matt Davidson, Furman University’s men’s golf coach. One of the courses on the schedule was none other than Lahinch Golf Club.
Bouton had never forgotten his 1986 visit and the bright young boy who carried his clubs. Would anyone know what might have happened to Oliver? When Bouton arrived at the Lahinch pro shop, he marched up to three women standing at a counter. “I asked them if anyone had been at Lahinch in 1986,” Bouton says. “They all started giggling because they hadn’t even been born then.”
But they directed Bouton to Lahinch’s caddie master, Tony. Bouton showed the old photo to Tony, who immediately burst into a big smile, saying “That’s Ollie!” It turned out that Oliver had become a professional caddie at Lahinch. A short while later, Oliver Hayes, now 46 years old, walked into the pro shop.
A Golf Caddie Reunion
Bouton reports that when Hayes saw the photo of himself at age 10, he let out an exclamation a bit too salty for a family publication. “He was just overjoyed, and we had a really nice reunion,” Bouton says. “The caddie master switched some schedules, and when we played that day, Oliver was my caddie again—36 years later.”
The nice kid from the past had become an expert golf advisor. “I relied 100 percent on Oliver for every shot I played,” Bouton admits. “I’d say, ‘Oliver, what’s the shot here?’ He would hand me a club and point out my line—and I played a great game.”
Hayes told Bouton that he had enjoyed a long career as a caddie, not only at Lahinch, but at some top US golf clubs. Hayes and his wife are the parents of two teenage children, with another child on the way.
“Seeing Oliver again made the trip really special,” Bouton says. “It was the highlight of the trip, not only for me, but for everyone in the Furman group.” Before he left, he had someone recreate the photo of him with Oliver—the same place, the same smiles, 36 years apart.
