Life on the PGA Tour might be cushy for the players, but for the caddies it’s an entirely different story. Sure, there are some “star” caddies like Michael Greller or Joe LaCava who have it better than others, but they are exceptions rather than the rule.
Geno Bonnalie, caddie for the affable Joel Dahmen, is a well-traveled looper and he’s had his fair share of experience with rundown lodging, but as he shared on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, one stop tops them all.
Bonnalie was in southern California for the Genesis Invitational, contested at the swanky Riviera Country Club, but his digs for the week were anything but swanky. Instead of finding a cheap motel or AirBnB, he decided to try his hand at “glamping.”
“I didn’t know what glamping was,” Bonnalie admitted. “He’s got these little, tiny trailers that they put in this guy’s backyard.”
As Bonnalie described it, the site was more like a “commune” than anything else, and he arrived to find his bed in a small camper parked in the backyard.
“The door to get into the camper was so narrow that I couldn’t get my suitcase into it,” he said. “And when I got in, my only lights in the camper were Christmas lights.”
No matter, Bonnalie situated himself into the camper and got a good night’s rest. The next morning, he ventured to the communal shower area to find a pile of empty shampoo and soap bottles.
“This isn’t real,” he said. “This is disgusting. I probably threw 15 of them away.”
Bonnalie finally made his way to the course and then to retrieve an iPad for Dahmen to use with his new Trackman. He went back to his living quarters and began to set up the new technology when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye.
“I look up and Master Splinter is walking across the kitchen,” he said. “I was like, ‘Hell no.’ He turned and ran back under the oven, and I went and got my sh*t and got out of there.”
Check out the entire episode of Subpar below as Bonnalie and fellow caddie Aaron Flener share their best stories from life on Tour, how to lighten your golf bag and more.
