Where is steve duplantis now ?

[bchrist2]

Just finished book bud sweat and tees and was wondering
what ever became of the caddie steve duplantis?

[murphcd]

Just finished book bud sweat and tees and was wondering
what ever became of the caddie steve duplantis?

From his diary:
Note to diary...
A recent update on the life and times of Steve Duplantis


By Steve Duplantis, The Insider
steve@golfontario.ca

In an effort to show my human side and perhaps drum up some sympathy after the heat I took from my faithful readers following my Annika comments in the previous issue, I thought I'd update you all on the glamour less proceedings of my season thus far.

Basically, since jobs are so hard to come by at the start of the year, I jumped at the first chance I got and got mired in a bad situation. On the other hand, my personal life has been a lot more settled and I'm just starting up with a new player-Joel Kribel. For the first time in over two years, I am excited, happy and feel like this could be a long-term relationship. If only I could find something like that in my personal life, but that's another column, or book, or movie.

In the caddie world, being unemployed on the west coast in January is about as bad as it can get. I had previously been working for Garrett Willis, but at the final tournament in 2002, I had a few too many late nights and too many whacks on the snooze button. So I started the year by rolling the dice and flying out to the first tournament in Hawaii without a job. I put my chances at 50/50 because there are usually three or four jobs and not many caddies available due to the expense of the trip from the mainland. It turned out there were at least 15 veteran caddies over there looking for work, and not a single bag to be had. I almost caught a break, though, when my roommate's player, Aaron Baddeley, nearly won the tournament, which would have gotten my hotel bill paid-an old caddie custom-but just to rub salt in the wound, Ernie Els canned a 50-foot bomb from off the green to end the sudden-death playoff.

The situation was almost the same the following week in Phoenix, except there were at least 25 caddies looking for work. Palm Springs was next up. With money becoming tight, my options were to either work for an amateur in the four-day pro-am or be a spotter for TV. Even though the pay was a lot less, I chose TV because my pride wouldn't let me work for some 20-handicapper and have my pals snicker while I chased errant balls through the desert.

I got word mid-week from my old pal, PGA Championship winner Rich Beem that Garrett was going to employ me again in two weeks in San Diego. Even though he is widely known as the most difficult bag on Tour, a point to which I can attest, I was desperate. My good friend, South Muskoka's Brennan Webb, had once again convinced Garrett to give me a shot. Those two were college teammates and remain best friends. Brennan knew that I had done some serious soul searching in the off-season and was determined to get my act together and live up to my potential out here.

It had become common knowledge on Tour that my drinking and crazy nightlife had escalated out of control, but unfortunately that became obvious to everyone else before it did to me. Thankfully, some friends-and even people I didn't know-managed to get through to me, and the fact that I'm here writing this is a small victory. Anyway, Saturday morning at 8:00 I got call from Garrett that he's on the tee at 9:20 and that his caddie for the week had quit and could I make it? I begged off my job at CBS since I was anxious to impress Garrett and get a bag back on my shoulder. He confirmed that he had a friend set for the next week at Pebble Beach but that I was back in after that. While driving up to Pebble on Sunday, I got a call from my old boss, Gabriel Hjertstedt. He had a job for me with Larry Rinker if I wanted it. Perfect - that got me through to San Diego.

Larry and I missed the cut, then Garrett called me and told me he was taking the next two weeks off, but I still had a great week since I met Wayne Gretzky in the bar. After screwing up enough courage to introduce myself, he happened to recognize me from the book Bud, Sweat and Tees. Wayne Gretzky knew who I was-how cool is that? After another week off in San Diego, Brennan came to my rescue again and convinced Garrett to play in the L.A. Open. I now had a job for at least the next four weeks in a row and things appeared to be looking up.

I consider Garrett a friend. When we're home hanging out in Tampa, he's a great guy, and if I ever needed a favour, he's one of the first guys I'd ask. That said, he's probably the only player I've worked for in 10 years out here that I didn't leave with a lot of positive experiences. One example: In our last tournament together in New Orleans, we were on the par-5 sixth hole. We had 240 yards to the front for our second shot, 268 to the pin, downwind and with firm greens. As usual, he didn't discuss anything with me, just grabbed the three-wood. Garrett's an extremely fast player, and by the time I looked down to see which club he grabbed, he was into his pre-shot routine. I interrupted him and told him I thought it was just a four-wood to the front and to let it release back, but he insisted on cutting a three-wood. I couldn't let him do it, so I slid the bag back out toward him. Before I could open my mouth, he said, "I got it." I said, "Are you sure?" To which he replied again, "I got it." Of course, he hit his three-wood well over the back. For the next 280 yards all I heard was, "You f*#@ing idiot. How the f*#@ could you just stand there and let me hit that club? How f*#@ing stupid are you?" Then, after his pitch shot rolled over the green, I bent down to pick up the bag and got covered from head to toe with dirt and mud from one of his tantrums.

It was like walking on eggshells with Garrett, because if things didn't go right, he would have a friend caddy the next week and then ask me back. This happened twice this year. I have a daughter to take care of, and I just had to get off that merry-go-round. It's sad because Garrett is a very good player and is on top of his game right now, but he has trouble getting out of his own way. He's had plenty of good caddies, and it always ends up the same way.

As for me, I'm pretty excited about my newest employer. Tour rookie Joel Kribel was one of the top amateurs in the world before turning pro. He lost in the final match of the U.S. Amateur to Matt Kuchar a few years back, played on the Walker Cup team and was an All-American the four years he played at Stanford, one of the premier academic colleges in the U.S. Most important, he's a great guy. If you have to spend eight hours a day with someone, it helps when you get along. He's only 26, so we have a lot in common-well, except for the Stanford part.

It's so easy to caddy for Joel. Every time I gave him the yardage in our first week together, I knew the club, and every time I got down to read a putt, I saw the line because I was relaxed and enjoying myself.

We've got life by the Top-Flites out here, and guys sometimes forget that. Life is good, and I appreciate that now. My daughter Sierra is the most beautiful little girl in the world and just got the best report card in her first-grade class, and I've got a great new boss that appreciates me and treats me with respect.

Now if I could just find a girlfriend…

[Mikki]

he is currently working for Golfer Daniel Chopra

[Ginker]

Read that book years ago.. a great read.

[byerxa]

Duplantis used to be a member at my dad's course. Most thought he was quite the bozo in the way he screwed things up. When he was on Furyk's bag, Jim gave him every chance in the world but eventually had to let him go because it was getting brutal. Imagine if he had stayed with Furyk - caddying for #2 in the world must have a reasonable financial reward!

[michaelbto]

Here is a link to the Facebook Tribute Group for Steve:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...8545109&ref=mf

Regards,
Michael