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We're in the heart of the Masters right now, but unless you're a major golf fan, you're probably not paying much attention to the side players on the course: the caddies. You see caddies carrying golf bags and handing off clubs, but their job actually goes much further than that, measuring yardages from ball to green and giving advice before crucial strokes. Caddies can work with golfers for years, receiving cuts of their winnings and even getting their own sponsorships.
All of which gives you even more of a reason to keep your eyes peeled this weekend when Fanny Sunesson is on the green. A professional caddie since 1989, Fanny is the only female caddie to have won a PGA tour major — and the only woman so far to be recognised in the Caddie Hall of Fame [3]. She retired from full-time caddying [4] in 2012 after a career that would be legendary by any standard: according to Golf.com, she's won four majors [5], several Ryder Cups, and a Players Championship in her 23-year career.
This weekend, though, Fanny is back on the course at Augusta National for the Masters tournament, caddying for fellow Swede Henrik Stenson. She was his caddie for five years before her retirement, and she has plenty of experience at the Masters: she won it twice with English golfer Nick Faldo, in 1990 and 1996. She was just 23 at the time of their first win, which vaulted her into the history books.
"I thought of it as a chance to see the world," Fanny said of her decision to start caddying so young, in an interview with CNN Living Golf [7]. "Maybe do it for a year and travel in Europe. It ended up being a few more years than a year."
"She's always been so well prepared and has every number possible and [has] seen the course," said Henrik Stenson, the golfer she's caddying for this weekend, in an interview with Golf Channel [8]. "It's fun to catch up ad be out together again."
Fanny is still in retirement, with no plans to return to caddying full-time; for the most part, she now works as a coach. For this weekend, though, you can catch the living legend out on the green once again.