Meet SA caddie Dean Smith … bag man for Open champion Ryan Fox
· Citizen
Dean Smith, the South African caddie for golfer Ryan Fox, says winning the Open Championship is career-changing and the ultimate achievement in golf.
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Smith, who lives in Durban, was on Fox’s bag last week at Royal Birkdale when the New Zealander birdied the final hole of the 154th Open to win his maiden Major, by one stroke.
In fact, Smith has been Fox’s bag man for 10 years.
‘Epic’
“Winning a Major is the ultimate. It’s the pinnacle of everything there is in golf,” Smith said in an interview with The Citizen.
“I believe the Open is the biggest tournament there is in the game so yes, it is career-changing. It is huge.
“It’s been a few days now, a pretty epic four days. It’s really all starting to sink in. I’ve been touched by all the messages and phone calls … it just shows the enormity of the event and the prize.”
Smith met Fox for the first time in 2015 when he was caddying for Byeong-hun An, while out on the Asian Tour.
“Myself and Byeong-hun were in a pairing with Ryan and I got chatting to him a bit there. We met up again at St Andrew’s at the Open of that year, after Ryan had qualified, and played a practice round with him.
“I finished up with Byeong-un at the end of that year and Ryan got hold of me and asked if I wanted to work for him. I saw his raw talent and I thought he was a super nice guy, so I accepted the challenge.”
Obviously, with Smith being a South African and Fox a Kiwi there’s plenty of rugby talk.
“For sure. And with Ryan’s dad (Grant) being a former All Blacks rugby player and his grandfather (Merv Wallace) being a former New Zealand Test captain, there’s always a lot of sporting talk. We’re both massive rugby fans … at least the Boks have had the upper hand over the last eight years.”
Following the Boks’ victory at the 2023 World Cup, where they beat the All Blacks in the final, Fox had to wear the Springbok jersey during the pro-am ahead of that year’s Nedbank Golf Challenge after losing a bet with Smith and his coach.
Party time
Smith, who was a scratch golfer in his youth, says caddying is without a doubt “a dream job” but it has its challenges.
“It’s a dream job when you’re young and energetic and enthusiastic … it’s still all that, but I’m not young anymore,” he jokes.
“Yes, I love it, but it’s a job and it’s difficult on my wife (Justine) and the kids (Kylie, 6, and Matthew, 4). I’m away a lot, often for long periods. So there are lots of sacrifices.”
But, there will be a big party in Durban on Saturday night.
“Yes, with lots of family, friends … big celebrations. It’s going to be wonderful.”
Fox has withdrawn from this week’s PGA Tour event in America (the 3M Open) and flown home to New Zealand to also celebrate with his family.
Smith says they’ll join up again in about 10 days’ time to start preparations for the FedEx Cup play-offs as the season winds down.
Could last weekend’s Major breakthrough be the first of more for Fox and himself?
“You’d hope so,” says Smith. “Every golfer’s career goal is to win a Major … just one. It’s a big deal, and it’s hard to do. Only a few guys get to win more than one. But, we’ll reset and adjust, and we’ll certainly try again next year.”