Remembering Dave Renwick

LIFE around Dave Renwick was seldom dull. The Scottish caddie, who has died of cancer at the age of 62, carried the bags of three different golfers as they won major championships and promptly parted company with each and every one of them.

The only other British caddie to work for three separate major champions is Dave Musgrove (Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle and Lee Janzen).

Renwick was on the bag when Jose Maria Olazabal won The Masters in 1994, caddied for Steve Elkington when the Australian won the US PGA Championship the following year and was alongside Vijay Singh when the Fijian won the 1998 US PGA, the Masters in 2000 and the US PGA in 2004.

Upset that he had not been paid as much as he felt he should have been when Olazabal won The Masters, Renwick promptly fired the Spaniard, failing to turn up for the Spanish Open. Olazabal got on a plane and flew to Edinburgh in what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Renwick to change his mind. The point of that story being that it showed just how highly Olazabal rated him.

Renwick's life was not short of incident. He fell asleep at the wheel of a car in which two of his fellow caddies died as he drove home overnight from a tournament in France. A mugging in Edinburgh left Renwick beaten-up and with a detached retina that, ultimately, cost him his job with Elkington.

He enjoyed tremendous success with Singh. Apart from the majors, he caddied for Vijay in 2004, when the Fijian won nine times. They were together for almost six years but the relationship ended in conflict in 2005 when Renwick walked away.

Three years ago, Rory McIlroy was penalised two-strokes after Renwick, caddying for the Irishman’s playing partner, Ricardo Gonzalez, noticed that McIlroy had taken an improper drop during the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Renwick worked on an oil rig in the North Sea before finding his way on to the European Tour in 1983. He was a life-long fan of Glasgow Rangers Football Club and both a keen and successful bowler.

Paul Lawrie tweeted: “Very sad to hear of Davy Renwick passing, a great guy and a great caddie. RIP my friend.”

Very sad to hear of Davy renwick passing , great guy great caddie RIP my friend

— Paul Lawrie (@PaulLawriegolf) February 4, 2016

Marc Warren also took to Twitter to express his condolences, saying: “We play with a heavy heart today, but his memory will live on. A true legend of Scottish golf, gone but not forgotten.”

RIP Dave Renwick, we play with a heavy heart today but his memory will live on. A true legend of Scottish golf gone but not forgotten ????????

— Marc Warren (@MarcWarrenGolf) February 4, 2016

Paul McGinley, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Trevor Immelman and Justin Rose were among the dozens of players who also took to social media to express their condolences.

Renwick is survived by his wife, Ruth, and their children. As a mark of respect, players, caddies, media and officials wore black ribbons during the second round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

He will be remembered as a man who enjoyed a drink, who did things his way, was superb at his job and was honest to a fault, regardless of the consequences.