As far as cool summer jobs go, Elise Liu’s is tough to beat.
The 18-year-old Richmond native, who just completed her first year at the University of St Andrews, is spending her summer working as an assistant caddie master at the Old Course...
A big part of Liu’s job is assigning caddies to players. There are upwards of 200 caddies registered to work out of the Old Course and Liu is trying to quickly put names to faces. “I have been getting to know some of them,” Liu says. “I have been trying to learn all of their names which is a challenge.”
Her job is a busy one, but Liu says it has been wonderful dealing with golfers every day who are thrilled to be playing the Old Course. Everyone, it seems, has a smile on their face. “It’s really interesting and really cool to be a part of what is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for so many of the guests,” she says. “Most people are really cheerful when they are about to tee off.”
Liu caught the golf bug from her mom, Kathy Chen, who is a longtime volunteer and rules official for British Columbia Golf. Liu got the job after completing her freshman year final exams at the University of St Andrews, where she is a physics major and also playing lots of golf as a member of one of the school’s golf teams.
“It’s different from U.S. college golf,” she says. “We have sort of a big golf club and then you can choose to be part of the competitive teams and I think we have five teams which play in different tiers throughout the UK.
“My team has done some travelling, mostly around courses in Scotland. It has been fun getting to see different parts of Scotland and playing different courses, especially since many of them are links courses which I think are fun to play.”
Liu particularly enjoyed a trip to play Royal Aberdeen in northern Scotland, where she experienced some real Scottish weather: cool temperatures, rain and wind.
“I think we were the only ones out on the course,” she says with a chuckle.
Most of the university matches are match play, which has been a welcome change for Liu, who played lots of competitive junior golf in B.C. and was a junior member at Quilchena Golf & Country Club in Richmond. “That’s been pretty cool because I don’t get to do a lot of match play in Canada.”
All University of St Andrews students are eligible for a huge golfing perk. They can purchase a links ticket for £371 that provides unlimited golf for the year at all seven of the St Andrews courses. For comparison’s sake, peak-season green fees at the Old Course are currently £320.
Needless to say, Liu has been making good use of her student privileges. She has lost count how many rounds she has played in the past year and has played all of the St Andrews courses, except for the Castle Course. She hopes to cross that one off her list soon.
Right now, she is squeezing in her golf between a busy work schedule. She works five or six shifts a week, usually starting at 8 or 9 in the morning. “Then I usually work until the last caddie goes out, which is usually some time past 5 or around 6.”
The sun sets deep into the evening these days and many of the caddies, some of whom have worked at the Old Course for more than 50 years, try to loop two rounds a day.
Liu also handles lots of administrative work in the office. She starts her day answering emails from individual golfers and tour companies looking to arrange caddies.
“We prepare physical paper sheets of each tee time and how many caddies they want. We also get quite a lot of phone calls from each of the St Andrews course starters who call to tell us, ‘this party has arrived and we are confirming their request for this many caddies.’ Then we can get the caddies sent out to that course which is not that easy sometimes since we operate from a pretty small building and sometimes there can be 20 or 30 people in there. It gets really busy.”
Asked when she is going to be able to play her next round of golf, Liu laughs and says, “I am playing tomorrow afternoon, actually, at the Jubilee Course.”
It sounds like a fun summer, doesn’t it?