Danny Noonan will caddie next week at Winged Foot.
But it won’t be for Ty Webb.
Michael O’Keefe, the 65-year-old actor who played Noonan in the movie “Caddyshack,” is set to carry the bag for another Danny, Danny Balin, the head pro at Fresh Meadow Country Club on Long Island, for Balin’s U.S. Open practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday. The news was first reported by the New York Post and confirmed by the USGA.
“I thought, ‘What if there’s a golfer out there who’s willing to give me a shot to carry their bag?’” O’Keefe, who caddied at Winged Foot in the early 1970s before his acting career took off, told The Post. “It’s not like I’m going to mess anybody up. I do know the course. It could be fun.”
So, O’Keefe penned a column for Golf.com, offering his services to anyone who would take them. “Drop me an email at hiredannynoonan@gmail.com. I’m not kidding,” he wrote. He told The Post that he didn’t think anyone would bite, calling it “as big a long shot as Carl Spackler winning the Masters.”
But Balin, who has heard this line – “Danny, do you do drugs?” – once or twice, was interested.
“I try to take this somewhat serious, so I would never do this during a tournament round,” Balin said. “But I was like, ‘Yeah, this will be cool. Danny Noonan. Monday and Tuesday.’ It’ll be a fun couple of days.”
Balin said he even recorded “Caddyshack” so that he could memorize some of the memorable quotes and repeat them to O’Keefe next week. The USGA apparently plans to generate some social-media content around the occasion, too.
“I’m going to have to watch it to get the one-liners down so I can give it to him,” Balin said. “Because I’m going to be all over him during this whole … stunt.”
