Exclusive: Billy Foster Q&A

Last updated: 14th June 2010

Lee Westwood's caddie talks to us about his long career, Seve Ballesteros and his man's preparations for Pebble Beach.

Caddie Billy Foster has worked with some of the finest players in the history of golf - the likes of Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros and Sergio Garcia.

More recently he has been enjoying time with Lee Westwood and was even credited with a stunning piece of psychology that helped the Englishman win the Race to Dubai at the end of 2009.

We grabbed a chat with the experienced bagman to talk to him about his life on the course, his time with the legends of the game and his hopes for the rest of this year with his current employer.

Golf365: How did you get started as a caddie?

Billy Foster: I guess I was about 16 years old. I had been playing golf for a while and wasn't really earning very much from my job as an apprentice joiner. One weekend I went down to my local course with a friend to caddie for one of the local pros in a tournament. I really enjoyed it and decided to do some more. That summer I took a six week holiday in Spain to do some caddieing in the tournaments out there. While I was there a professional golfer called Hugh Baiocchi saw something in me and asked me to come back to Spain next year to caddie for him full time. It all started from there.

Golf365: How many years have you been caddieing?

Billy Foster: 28 years this year.

Golf365: Where did your love of golf come from?

Billy Foster: My dad got me started just playing down at the local club from eight or nine and I started caddieing for some of the local pros a few years after that. So really my appreciation of the game just grew from there.

Golf365: In order to be a good caddie, do you think you need to be a good player?

Billy Foster: No not really. In fact some of the best caddies on the tour are pretty average players. The key is just to exercise a bit of common sense when on the course and not to rush yourself. Being prepared and knowing your player's strengths really helps.

Golf365: What would you say is ... the best/most memorable moment in your career to date?

Billy Foster: This has got to be when I was caddieing for Darren Clarke when Europe won the Ryder Cup. It had been a really tough time for Darren and he won all three matches that year playing some of the best golf I have ever seen. It really was a special moment.

Golf365: The lowest moment in your career?

Billy Foster: Caddieing for Thomas Bjorn when he lost the British Open. He was in the lead going into the final day but had a truly awful last round and lost by a single shot.

Golf365: The most unusual point or event in your career?

Billy Foster: Working for Seve Ballesteros at Crans-sur-Sierre in the European Masters when he got stuck behind a wall and I was desperately trying to convince him to play safe. But Seve being Seve, he simply told me not to worry and that he had a perfectly good shot (one that only he could ever have played). He played an amazing shot out onto the fairway and then proceeded to chip in from there. It was truly unbelievable.

Golf365: Talking of Seve, he's planning to be at the Open in St Andrews. That will be emotional. Have you heard from him?

Billy Foster: Yeah, I've been in touch with a few emails. He seems in good shape from what I hear. It will be great to see him at St Andrews.

Golf365: You've been to courses all around the world, which would you say is your favourite?

Billy Foster: It has to be Royal Birkdale. It's a fantastic course that really challenges all of the players and caddies. Sawgrass is also a good course as every hole is so different and really requires golfer and caddie to think like a team.

Golf365: What is your favourite event?

Billy Foster: The Ryder Cup. The old rivalry between Europe and the US really brings out the best (and the worst) in the players and it produces some real drama. I also love the Open Championship in England as there is something very special about it.

Golf365: You've caddied for some of the greatest players in recent golfing history. What would you say is the key to your success?

Billy Foster: Keeping a level head is key. It's also really important to be able to read the situation and diffuse a player's mood. You need to know when to have a laugh on the course and when to be a bit more serious. Being cool under pressure is essential as you quite often find yourself in high stress situations.

Golf365: As a caddie you have to be pretty organized, what would you say is the most difficult thing about staying organized in your line of work?

Billy Foster: I always seem to be travelling to different countries so keeping a close eye on my schedule is so important and I always like to make sure that I book my own flights and hotels and plan a long way in advance. There are always last minute changes that you cannot account for but planning is really key. I always have my Nokia E72 on me as it means that I can keep track of all of my appointments and meetings using the calendar as well as stay in touch with my friends and family through email and calls no matter where I am in the world.

Golf365: What have been your personal highlights of the season so far?

Billy Foster: The Masters with Lee Westwood was very special. He's normally a slow starter but this year he has started just as he finished last year and has been unlucky not to win a tournament already. It's a shame because the score that he shot at the Masters would have been good enough to win him 17 out of the last 20 tournaments.

Golf365: You've been a caddie for nearly 30 years and in that time professional golf has changed so the role of the caddie must have altered a lot too?

Billy Foster: Definitely, when I first started caddies were almost dragged in off the street! We were a pretty rough and ready bunch and there was very little money in the game. The pros didn't win anywhere near as much so our 5% was a lot less than that. Once you'd paid expenses and flights you really couldn't make a bean in the game. Nowadays the players practice harder which means more work for us, we also do more homework and professional, we're also much smarter and as players have become fitter so have we. You look at something like yardages. When I first started we'd walk the course and pace the distances. Then we got yardage wheels. Now we've lasers which are a great help and really make our lives easier. But that said, for all the technology I also believe that sometimes you can have too much - the old valued skills of the game remain. Something like the ability to read a green. Some people overcomplicate it with spirit levels and over analysis. There's nothing wrong with just crouching down and reading it. That's experience.

Golf365: You obviously still love the job?

Billy Foster: It's a great job and I love it. But it's not just four hours on the course - it's a couple of hours practice before the round, maybe a couple after, maybe walking the course before the round. And being stuck in a hotel room away from the family can be tough but I've got my Nokia so I can stay in touch with the family and send photos home.

Golf365: Let's talk about the upcoming US Open. It will hold good memories for Lee so do you think he has a good chance?

Billy Foster: There's the old line about horses for courses and it does work. In fact we were at Wentworth which doesn't seem to fit Lee's eye so his eighth place finish there is pretty good. Sometimes a player doesn't like where the bunkers are or the grass. But he likes it at Pebble and it should suit him - the long game is tough and that's what he's good at.

Golf365: When you are preparing for a major do you stick to the same pre-event routines or do you do things differently?

Billy Foster: As much as possible you stay the same. But let's be honest, I'd be a liar if I said we didn't try to go that extra few per cent. It's just not possible to play every week in top gear so you don't and it's natural to want to perform best at the majors. We're doing something different because we're heading to Pebble Beach before the final warm-up event in Memphis (the St Jude Classic which Lee won last week).

Golf365: Is that when you'll create a strategy?

Billy Foster: Yeah, we'll work hard at the course for a couple of days. We'll fathom out the best places we want to be off the tee. I'll have ideas after walking the course but when we get out there we might change those theories. We'll find places he'll be comfortable in for his approaches. But you have to bear in mind as well what might go wrong and when you might have to play catch-up if you need late birdies. You want to feel all the homework has been done.

Golf365: Conventional wisdom says you need to be short and straight at the US Open but recent trends don't back that up really do they?

Billy Foster: No, basically at the US Open if you're a foot off the fairway you've got a bigger chance of getting a bad lie than if you are 15 or 20 feet off it. Plus technology has changed the game and players know they can muscle one out with a 9-iron if they go for it from the tee but someone hitting 5-iron from the rough has no chance. The game is so much more aggressive than when I first caddied with Seve when we played more irons from tees.

Golf365: Can just talk about the Dubai World Championship last year and how Lee won that so convincingly after a chat you had?

Billy Foster: Yeah, we had a little talk at the start of the week when I told him to go out and basically bully the other contenders in the Race to Dubai to a certain degree. I told him he was a class act who had done all that the others had done and more.

Golf365: It was a brilliant piece of strategy but unfortunately, of course, you can't just repeat that every week so how do you attempt to repeat the trick without being too obvious?

Billy Foster: Well, I'd never say the same thing! You look to say something similar but different and only when it really matters. Sometimes it is as important just to keep my gob shut! And sometimes the player just needs to have a laugh and take the stress away. It's a bit of psychology and also a bit of reverse psychology. You have to hope you get it right.

Golf365: What about the other way around - what's the best piece of advice a golfer has given you and who was it?

Billy Foster: It's important to learn from every player that you work with as you are always evolving as a caddie. There were plenty of things that Seve Ballesteros said to me but it's probably best that they are not repeated.

Golf365: And what advice would you give to people looking to become a world class caddie?

Billy Foster: A young player once asked me this. I explained that he needed to go to qualifying school in Spain and then join the challenge tour with a young pro aspiring to join the major tour. From there he should get another job with a better pro and eventually be able to join the main tour. He contacted me recently to tell me that he had done just that and his player on the challenge tour had won his first event, which is great news.

Golf365: Final question, Billy, could you maybe describe a typical day in your life?

Billy Foster: I spend a lot of time travelling around the world so no two days are ever the same but during a tournament my day starts really early as I try to get to the course for about 7am. This gives me four to five hours to walk around the course to really inspect all of the pin positions to work out where the player would ideally like to be on each hole and prepare notes for him. After that I will meet the player and we'll discuss my notes for a couple of hours. Then we'll tee off and the round takes about five hours. After the round the player will probably want to practice for a bit but I head off to the hotel and catch up with my friends and family before dinner - if I have time I like to try and relax a bit with a few beers with some of the other guys on the tour.