Jan Squire wakes up at 5 or 9 a.m. depending on tee-off time. Practises about an hour of egoscue,a form of yoga for correct postures,gets on to the caddie bus for the golf course and picks up the golf bag from the locker room. Studies wind movement and weather forecast. On the course,helps Jeev with the clubs and distances. After the round,she assists him in practice. Enjoys dinner and drinks with other caddies and sleeps early. When she prepares in the morning for a trip to the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaonarmed with a mental note: never forget to pack the sunscreen even in the Indian winterJan Squire will be the only woman allowed to walk on the course in the $2.3 million Avantha Masters. In fact,even when Jeev Milkha Singh is playing on European golf courses,she is only one of two woman caddies on the tour. Tell her that and she isnt very pleased. The woman from Ascot,a village in Berkshire,England,doesnt like to play the gender card. With decades of experience of carrying the bag,Squire would rather be known as one of the best in the business than having onlookers gasp at how a woman manages to do such a tough physical job. With some of his contemporaries describing Jeev as a golf pervert for the number of tournaments he plays in a year,a regular season for Squire means 35-40 weeks on the job,in different countries,a minimum of four hours of competition rounds on four days,apart from pre- and post-round practice each day and a recce of the 18-hole course before play begins. Squire has now visited nearly every country in Europe and Asia that has a golf course,something she wouldnt have imagined when as a 12-year-old she took up caddyingwith absolutely no family connection to golfjust for pocket money. Im just living off Jeevs talent, she says of her employer of nearly five years. Her lone grudge is that the press always gets her name wrong,adding the et after Jan. Though she likes visiting different countries and gets a high on days when Jeev is partnered with other golfing greats such as two-time major winner John Daly this Thursday and the games biggest name,Tiger Woods,in the Masters in 2009,continent-hopping does get lonely sometimes. For those times,she has the caddie gatherings to fall back on. Its not a solemn group when we are taking the bus to the course. There are some 10 caddies here from the Sunningdale Golf Club where I first started and even with the other caddies,we get along really well, she says. Once at the golf club,she gets down to work,making sure all the clubs are in place,there is enough food in the bag to last for the round and adequate clothes for the chilly weather. The most sensitive part is studying the wind direction,as one wrong assessment could wreak havoc with the players day. A caddies best friend is the yardage book,an information guide unique to every course about the distances on each hole. Its your Bible,your God,your navigation key,its everything, she says. And in the past three decades,Squire has been diligent enough not to drop it on the course ever. On Jeevs final hole for the day,she wipes the ball,views the lines on the greens from all possible angles and passes on her reading to him,but once he steadies himself on the putter,unlike an anxious mother watching her child performing on the stage,she relaxes in the backdrop. One of the perks of caddying when Jeev is playing in India is that she gets a BMW ride on her way back and she hops in the front seat with a schoolgirlish bag with some dangling chains. But she is maturer than her accessories would suggest. Shes very committed and hardworking. She knows what to say to me on the course how do I put itshe knows my balls! Yes,thats the best way to say it, says Jeev.
