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18-Hole Drivers
Truckers keep LPGA players on the course.
By Bill Hudgins
He could have been Tiger Woods. Heck, Wiley says he could've been better than Tiger Woods, could've found himself years ago smack in the middle of the media-fueled spotlight that has made a star out of the talented young golfer. But Wiley went to Vietnam. He came home damaged just enough to keep him off the pro golf tour but not, it turned out, off the course completely.
Wiley, as he is universally known on the LPGA Tour circuit, swapped his driver for the wheel of an International Eagle pulling a van that holds a fully equipped fitness center for the Tour's competitors. He also frequently caddies for players in the Ladies Professional Golf Association, offering more than 30 years of insight into the tricky ways of that little white ball.
The fitness van sponsored by HealthSouth is one of four vehicles that follow the LPGA Tour. Two smaller vans pulled by medium-duty trucks contain a club repair shop and the equipment for a mobile child care center. The fourth vehicle is another full-size trailer containing the LPGA's "Fan Village" exhibit. that appears at a select number of tournaments.
War Interrupts Career
At 50, Wiley is still trim and constantly on the move. He grew up in North Carolina, where in the early 1960s, a golf shop pro found jobs for the youth to do and began teaching him to play golf.
"This was a private, segregated country club," Wiley says, "but because I worked there, I was able to learn how to play in spite of that. I kind of got the bug and one day I told the pro I wanted a set of clubs. He handed me one ball and said when I learned to hit it, he'd give me a set. I practiced and finally came in one day and said, 'I'm ready.'
"When I was 17 and 18, I could do anything I wanted to with a golf ball," Wiley says. "My friends from back then have told me, 'Tiger Woods is as good as you were.' I tell them, no, he doesn't hit the ball as far as I did."
In 1969, with the Vietnam War raging, Wiley was drafted into the Army and went "in country" with the 503rd Infantry. At times, he also drove artillery transports. One day, it started raining mortars and a blast sent a loose drawbar flying. It slammed into his body like a defensive lineman. Amazingly, it didn't break any bones, but the pain didn't go away once the bruises faded.
"It left me with a terrible case of tendinitis," Wiley says. He came back and finished his tour at Fort Bragg, N.C., chauffeuring colonels and generals and teaching golf, although it hurt too much to try to play. After discharge in 1970, he moved to New York to try to find a cure for the aches, became partners in a bar, and built up a network of friends who hired him to help them improve their games.
In 1972, he began hauling in the winter for a toy company, with a dedicated run between New York and Cincinnati. When the weather improved, he'd come off the highways and onto the fairways.
Over time, he began to be able to play golf more and thought about the pro circuit again. He'd feel better and try to resume the tour, and then the cycle of pain would start again. The doctors told him to forget playing golf as a career. After some years, a new doctor discovered that one of Wiley's legs was slightly shorter than the other. "I had favored one side of my body so long that it was slightly shorter than the other. This caused a slightly herniated disk in my back, too. He gave me a heel support and I haven't had any problems since."
But by then his hopes of a career in pro golf had faded. He had moved on to a fleet in Rochester, N.Y., that was acquired by Schneider. He stayed in touch with his professional golfer friends and worked in pro shops occasionally to remain close to the game he loved.
Golf and Trucking Line Up
In 1988, the LPGA was looking for a way to help its players train while on the road. A rolling fitness center seemed to be the perfect solution. Tour officials wanted someone who could drive and maintain the vehicle and who also understood golf and golfers. They offered Wiley the job.
He's had several other trucks, but Wiley says the best so far is the 1999 International 9400 Eagle provided by Paul Arpin Van Lines, which is the official mover for the LPGA. Powered by a 475-hp Caterpillar engine, the International conventional easily handles the 35-foot fitness van. That may sound like a lot of horses for a small trailer, but looks are deceiving, Wiley said.
The combination may gross 65,000 to 70,000 pounds. A lot of the weight is in the trailer itself. Both sides slide out to form a spacious workout area packed with treadmills, stair climbers, stationary bikes, free weights and weight machines, two tables for physical therapy treatments, ultrasound and other diagnostic gear, a TV, air conditioning system, generator, sink and water tanks.
There are also various bracing poles and beams to help level the unit wherever it's parked. Like the trailer, these are stoutly made. "We may have as many as 10 people in here working out or getting treatment from a physical therapist," Wiley says. So the trailer must be dead level and solid as a long tee shot over a water hazard.
Tournaments generally begin with preliminary qualifying rounds and local pro-am charity games early in the week and end on Sundays. Wiley drives solo and handles setup and teardown, and usually packs computers and other gear for the pressroom in the trailer as well.
"I'll drive Sunday night and some on Monday, if needed, to get to the next tournament. Once I get there, I set up the trailer so it's ready for the players who are trying to qualify for the tourney," he says. Occasionally he'll "get a bag" — be hired by one of the players to caddy for her.
The LPGA season runs from early in the year to late fall, with a few weeks off around Christmas. But then there are a number of off-season events that he works and, before you know it, a new season is under way and so is Wiley, chasing that little white ball down the highways and fairways. It's the next best thing to being a Tiger Woods.
Club Car
As far as Ray Hess is concerned, there's no shortage of drivers — or irons, woods or putters. Hess, 51, is the LPGA's ace golf club repairman. A long-time golf instructor and club repairman, Hess started working for the Tour in 1997. He pulls a 26-foot trailer fitted out to repair almost any kind of damage to a club — except one that was wrapped around a tree by an angry player.
Counters line both sides of the trailer interior, and parts and tools make it a hefty load for the Ford F250 diesel truck Hess drives. He says he really could use a more powerful truck.
"We've got grinding sanders, belt sanders, loft and lie machines that bend clubs to the correct angles. We can adjust the angle of the head or replace grips if the player thinks they're not right. A club may be too heavy or too light for a player and we can fix that. It's like sighting in a rifle. We tune the club to enhance the player's performance.
"I usually get to a tournament on Monday and stay until Sunday. I'm swamped most of the time; some players change grips every two or three weeks or even more often," Hess says. Occasionally, he gets some relief when a repair tech from one of the big club makers like Callaway comes to the tournament to check up on players using those clubs.
In his 20s, Hess spent a few weeks driving over the road. Although he quickly decided that wasn't his path, the experience came in handy when he approached the LPGA for the job. "Truckers work really hard and I admire their ability to do what they do," he says. "Some have come up to me when I stop at a truckstop and ask about the trailer. I explain what I do and those who play usually ask for tips on improving their game."
Kids' Game
A number of the players on the LPGA Tour are also working moms with young children. Like many truckers, they have to deal with the stresses and strains of caring for their kids while maintaining a career that keeps them on the road for days or weeks at a time.
As a result, a number of players bring their children with them to tournaments, where the LPGA has teamed up with the J.M. Smucker Co., the jam-and-jelly giant, to offer day care in the Smuckers LPGA Child Development Center.
Packed into a 26-foot straight truck are toys, desks, chairs, TV/VCR, stereo, easels, storage cubby holes, and learning resources used by the association's traveling child care professionals. At each location, they unpack the equipment and set it up in a space provided by the tournament. The idea is to give the children familiar surroundings while Mom is off on the links.
Randy Wilkins hauls the child care center trailer and has a special interest in the LPGA Tour — his wife, Donna, is a pro who sometimes plays on the Tour. Randy, 40, played golf in college and was aiming at the pro tour when injuries sidelined him. He caddied for about six years, then became a club pro.
"After about 10 years, I decided I didn't want to teach anymore and asked Cindy McCurdy (current president of the LPGA Tour) if I could caddy for her. This is my third year caddying for her."
He took over driving the child care truck last year after the previous driver left. The equipment is light and does not take long to load or unload. That's important, because once he gets to a tournament site early each week, he and McCurdy have to hit the course to analyze it before play begins. Like Ray Hess, he rarely gets a chance to play a course before it's time to pack up and hit the road again.
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