At 1:27 Eastern Daylight Time this afternoon, PGA golfers Brian Gay, Woody Austin and Charles Howell III will begin their opening round of the St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind's No. 10 tee.
No offense to that trio, but unless you're the kind of golf nut who watches replays of the 1987 B.C. Open at 3 a.m., you're probably not slipping out of work early to glimpse this threesome on the Golf Channel.
Unless, of course, you know their caddies. Then you might have a great deal of interest in the Chattanooga trifecta of Kip Henley (Gay), Brent Henley (Austin) and Mitch Knox (Howell III, or “Three Sticks,” as Kip calls him).
“Just the luck of the draw,” said Kip late Wednesday afternoon, right before he and Brent left Memphis and headed to the casinos in Tunica, Miss., for an early evening of poker. “We’ve had two of us in the same group before, but never all three of us. I imagine we’ll give each other a lot of grief.”
Said Knox, “I’ll just try to keep those two from fighting.”
It's a friendship that began more than 20 years ago, just after the 41-year-old Knox graduated from Ooltewah High in 1986. He had begun caddying at the Honors Course and through those connections came to know the Henley brothers, who had graduated from Central High a few years earlier.
Soon enough he hooked on with Charlie Rymer, who later introduced him to fellow Georgia Tech alum David Duval. If the Golf Channel’s Big Break II briefly made Kip Henley a household name, Duval was Knox's big break.
“I was with David when he shot a 59 (final round of 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic) and when he shot a 89 after his injuries,” said Knox. “I was with him for the British Open win and the Ryder Cup win. Caddying for David has probably been the most memorable part of my career so far.”
So how did he end up with Howell III?
“He needed a caddy and I'd just gotten fired again,” Knox said with a chuckle over his cell phone. “I have a bad habit of telling people what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear.”
Knox is about to hear the patter of little feet around his East Brainerd home. His wife of a little more than a year, Amy Walker, is six months pregnant.
“It stinks being away from home,” he said. “But my wife’s very independent. So that helps out.”
Getting the Big Break II out of his system has helped Kip Henley a lot. Winning the television show a little over four years ago gave the journeyman pro his best shot to reach the PGA Tour as a player. But when he fell short, the 48-year-old husband and father of two also knew it was time to go back to, as he once said, “Handing out the clubs instead of taking them.”
Said Kip on Wednesday, “I’ve always said that Brent was always a way better golfer than he thought he was and I was never as good as I thought I was. And I’ve probably spent more than $100,000 over the years proving that.”
But with Kip, Brent and Mitch on their bags, Gay, Austin and Three Sticks have been proving to be pretty good at picking up checks this season. All three have earned at least $670,000 each, with Gay well on his way to $2 million for the year and Howell III approaching $1.5 million.
So how will they do this weekend in Memphis?
“I have no idea,” said the low-key Knox. “I’m just trying to stand up and not pass out. I’m drinking a lot of Gatorade, I’ll tell you that. It’s supposed to be 95 degrees.”
Kip was far more confident about the victory potential of Caddynooga’s employers.
Knowing Austin won the event two years ago with Brent on his bag, Kip said, “The winner is going to come out of our group.”
If that happens, expect the winning caddy to call it Big Break Three Sticks.
