Game Changers
How One PGA Coach Ended Up Caddying for Eric Church at Pebble Beach
By Ryan Adams, PGA
Published on

So you get a text message, but it's far from an ordinary one.
This text is from a well-known music star asking if you want to caddy for him at maybe one of the most famous golf courses in the world. Pretty epic, right?
For PGA of America Golf Profesisonal Gaylon Cude, that text wasn't just a hypothetical . . . it was reality last July.
Cude is a Teaching Professional at Golf House Tennessee in Nashville, and one of his many students happens to be country music icon Eric Church, who doesn't have a ton of time for golf but when he does, he makes it count. Thus the opportunity for Cude at Pebble Beach.
"He texted me and said, 'I just got my invite to the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. What are you doing January 27th to February 1st. Do you wanna caddy for me?' It was pretty straight to the point," laughs Cude. "That's something where you get the message and you're just like, 'Is this really happening?' I couldn't say no to that."

Cude's caddy bib for the week.

This wasn't just a random text out of the blue either. Church is one of Cude's many students he coaches at Golf House. A couple years ago, the two were connected through another student of Cude's, Ben Weprin, who's a VP for Marine & Lawn Hotels. A friend had set up Weprin with Cude for lessons and after the first lesson, Cude was scrolling social media and saw a picture of Weprin, Justin Thomas, Eli Manning, Morgan Wallen and, you guessed it, Eric Church.
"After a couple of lessons Ben explained the connection, and how Eric was one of his best friends," says Cude, who's from small-town Centerville in the middle of Tennessee and played college golf at Belmont. "He also said Eric was playing in the AT&T and needed someone to give him lessons. This was 2-3 weeks before the Pro-Am!"
Fast forward to last week, and now Cude isn't just serving as Church's PGA Coach . . . he's also his looper walking around Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach. The two flew out to the Monterey Peninsula together and got in late Tuesday night. Church went off-property to get a round in (location undisclosed) while Cude walked Pebble Beach to get some reps in and catch up with friends there working on the broadcast team and as equipment reps.

No. 7 at Pebble Beach. (USGA/John Mummert)
"For me, never having been to Pebble Beach and walking the course, you can't take something like that for granted," says Cude. "You hear people talk about it and the expectations are just sky-high. Then you get there in-person and you're just blown away. No. 6-10 might be the greatest collection of golf holes in the world."
Cude and Church paired with Sam Burns and played alongside J.T. Poston and NBA Hall of Famer Pau Gasol so "they were easy to spot," quips Cude. "But I was in good hands with my first foray into caddying. Sam's caddy Travis Perkins is from Knoxville and J.T.'s caddy Aaron Flener played at Liscomb and I've know him forever. Between us three and Eric, the Tennessee connection was strong in our group."
Balancing being Church's caddy out on the peninsula but also his full-time coach was easier for Cude than he expected. He was in caddy mode 99 percent of the way, with a few mechanical tweaks here and there. Leaning on Burns' abilities took the stress off of Church, Cude says, and allowed the group to have a ton of fun.
"Golf isn't Eric's livelihood so there's not a whole lot of stress when we're out there," adds Cude. "We lost our feels a bit at one point, so we talked about it. Sam helped out a lot, too, and we ended up finishing in the top half of the field, so I'd say we met expectations. It ended up being a really cool experience."
And as Cude knows, the game actually provides a ton of different, unique experiences. Some amazing, some that challenge you to get better and some that you remember for a lifetime.
"My mentor and good friend Joe Hallett told me that in order to be a good coach, you have to be good at building relationships," says Cude. "Golf is all about relationships. When someone trusts you as a person, they then can trust you to be their teacher. And in my case at Pebble Beach, they can trust you to be their caddy.
It tells me I'm doing something right and, hopefully, I can keep doing this for a long time."