Jerry Jeff Walker: Caddy and Golfer Turned Singer-Songwriter

By Kyle Dalton,
Staff Writer

AUSTIN, TX -- Jerry Jeff Walker has never been one to shy away from taking a different approach. After nearly 40 years as a major influence on the “outlaw” progressive country movement in Austin and a successful entertainer on a national scale, Walker has made a career out of taking a different approach. His views and ideas on the game of golf are, pardon the expression, no different.

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Walker, who turned 60 in March, knows a little something about golf. It was at the ripe age of 12, back in 1954, when Walker, who was known then as Ronald Clyde Crosby, began carrying the bag for his father and his father’s friends. “My dad wanted me to earn some money in the summer. So I caddied (for him) and also helped my grandpa on the farm in upstate New York.”

Upstate New York was Oneonta, which is about 20 miles south of Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was there at the Oneonta Country Club where Walker learned about golf and formed his viewpoints about the game. “You had to serve as an apprentice under the head pro before you could caddy and carry the bag. You learned how to rake the traps, replace divots, and learn the yardage on the course, which was a pine tree or maybe a stake at 150. It took a couple of months.”