Caddies have been a part of the game since the 1600's.  These boys from Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey, pictured here around 1910, had they been born sixty or so years later, might have been able to make a healthy living caddying for the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, or Ernie Els.  But in the early 1900's caddies were basically day laborers, carrying whoever's bag they could (and sometimes two at the same time) for a few bits of change.  In the U.S., as in England and Scotland in the early days, the best players began as caddies.  The game's greats like Ouimet, Hagen, Nelson, and Hogan all began as caddies.  Andrew Kirkaldy, a Scot who played his golf at St. Andrews, recalled that young boys in his day would skip school and try to pick up a bag.  "In those days young lads born into poverty, with no way of escaping, may have thought of the old caddie adage: 'caddying in early life, professional golf later, bring a man into good company.'"