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The Secret of St. Andrews podcast is for golf enthusiasts, history buffs and patriots.
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Daft Willie Gunn.
Willie Gunn was more than a caddy. He was a beloved character whose portrait now hangs proudly in the clubhouse of the Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh. Willie was known as Caddy Willie, or Daft Willie, and he lived beside the course in the attic of a small cottage. Willie was, shall we say, a bit eccentric and not your typical caddy.
He never addressed members by name, only by their professions. He was uneducated and illiterate, but he had a very sharp wit that endeared him to the Burgess members. To Willie, a surgeon would be known as a "man of all the knife," whom he would instruct to “carve your spoon into the belly of the green.” Willie would quite literally show up on the first tee with nothing but the clothes on his back.
He wore three or four sleeveless coats at the same time and had to cut the sleeves off to get them on. On top, he'd dress it up with a scarlet red coat discarded by one of the Burgess members. Underneath, he wore three or four vests with an old fur one on the outside. Willie wore three or four pairs of trousers with the worst pair exposed to the weather, and three bonnets sewn together.
He was a beloved figure, and the Burgess members took very good care of Caddy Willie. He was a simple man who enjoyed a diet of milk and rolls supplied by club members. In the winter of 1813, Willie’s room was burglarized, and he lost all his possessions. With the help of Burgess members, Willie dictated a request to the club's captain for financial assistance.
His letter read, in part, “May it therefore please the gentlemen who frequent the links to contribute some small thing for my support, which will be gratefully received.” The captain agreed, and a fund was set aside to help Daft Willie. No one knew exactly where Willie lived, but they assumed he spent the off-season in the Highlands.
He'd show up each season and then walk home when play began to tail off. In 1820, he mysteriously disappeared. At the end of the season, Daft Willie Gunn walked home for the last time, never to be seen again. In 1839, the Burgess members commissioned a portrait of Daft Willie, which today is proudly displayed in the members' bar—a fitting tribute for one of Scotland's great caddies of the 19th century.