There will be many AGW members sad to learn of the passing of renowned European Tour caddy, Malcolm Mason.
Of course, Malcolm was not a member of the AGW but there will be so many members who, like myself, befriended Malcolm and also benefitted so much from his tournament input.
My research reveals Malcolm was born in Bolton and began caddying around 1983 working for the likes of Tony Johnstone, Howard Clark, Sam Torrance, Carl Mason, Mark Roe, Ernie Els and earlier in this decade a young Danny Willett (see photo).
Indeed, Torrance once sacked him but two hours later Malcolm was reinstated.
Malcolm Mason caddying for Danny Willett in hhe 2011 Andalucia Masters
He got into caddying when he separated from his wife and once spoke of his relationship with Torrance saying: “When you think of the time a caddy and a player spend side-by-side is it not surprising that there is tension. I spend five hours a day, five days a week with Sam. That is more than a man would normally spend with his wife.”
Malcolm would have aged around 70 when he recently passed away.
AGW colleague, Norman Dabell knew Malcolm very well and Malcolm features in Norman’s famed ‘How we won …. ‘ caddy books.
And with thanks to Norman he’s kindly provided the following tribute to Malcolm.
Malcolm was legendary for being Sam Torrance’s caddie and latterly for working with Danny Willett when Danny was launching his career.
‘Malc’ was a lovely bloke, a bit of a gentle giant. He was a friend and very kind to me. He had a fount of caddying and player stories, a tremendous help to me when writing my Ryder Cup books.
I still have an hilarious tape recording of Malcolm’s interview with me of his account of his and Sam’s Ryder Cup exploits.
‘Malc’ liked a drink and I bought him copious beers during our interview. He’d had several beforehand too. The tape starts off with Malcolm perfectly lucid but as it goes on his diction gets more and more slurred and by the end he’s almost incomprehensible. When I transcribed I kept having to play back repeatedly to hang on his words and in the end had to spend another half hour with him checking things out – over several more beers of course.
RIP Malc.
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