The Caddy Pastor

Thanks, Jeremy.

Great story about a man who ministers to caddys and players on the PGA tour. Shows how much of an impact you can have when you put yourself in the middle of where God wants you.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla., May 13 — Early in the afternoon, on the final day of the tournament, Tiger Woods came to the 13th tee at The Players Championship, along with his playing partner, Davis Love III. A large black man in funky gold-framed glasses and a bright-white NBC baseball cap ambled over to them. He knew them and the golfers knew him. The two caddies, Steve Williams and Cubbie Burke, knew the man, too. He's known on Tour as T-O-W, The Other Woods. At one point on Sunday, Tiger Woods was on the 13th tee — and so was George Woods.

At The Players, George Woods was working as a spotter for NBC, relaying the clubs the players were using back to a producer. He's averaged 30 events a year for the past four years, although he hasn't been out much this year. When the Tour's in your system, you do what you can to stay out there.

On the Sundays before tournaments, he sometimes cleans the outsides of the big trailers of the equipment manufacturers, using a powerful water gun he travels with. On Sunday nights after tournaments, he sometimes helps load a trailer that transports player baggage to the next Tour stop. For a while last year, he drove Love's massive mobile-home trailer across the Tour landscape. Now he's doing the same for Chris Couch. A few years ago, when Craig Perks's caddie was arrested, George Woods stepped in as a pinch-hit caddie.

But his main thing is his work as the unofficial pastor to the Tour caddies. "You can't get caddies to Bible study, so I bring it to them," Woods said between groups, sitting on a large ice chest positioned underneath a tree. Sometimes, he'd get a drink out for the players. He said to one, "You want the red or the green?"

Read the entire article here.