QBE Shootout: 97-year-old Florida resident, who once caddied for Gene Sarazen, meets Bubba Watson, Lexi Thompson, and Ryan Palmer

NAPLES, Fla. — The parent company of Seascape at Naples, an assisted living center, has a program it calls its “Wow Moments” where it tries to connect its residents to something in their past or that’s an interest.

Friday, one of those happened at the QBE Shootout at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.

Anthony “Tony” Torre, a 97-year-old who has been at Seascape a few months, came to the PGA Tour event and got to meet some of the game’s stars. And some caddies.

Torre has something in common with them. He was a caddie growing up in New York, and one time got to caddie for none other than Gene Sarazen, one of five golfers to win the career Grand Slam, at the Glens Falls Open, a PGA Tour event that was played from 1929 to 1939.

According to Torre, when the tournament was coming up — back in those days, pros simply picked up their caddies at the club where the event was going to be played — there was an “A” list of caddies, and then others that the club professional submitted to the tour pros to pick from.

Torre, who grew up in Schenectady, New York, was one of the others — but not when the tournament started. He won an A list slip from one of those caddies in a craps game. And Sarazen ended up being his pro.

Sarazen, who grew up in Harrison, New York, didn’t win the tournament, but finished second or third; he was second in 1938 and third in 1939. Torre got $50, a set of kroydon irons, and golf shoes from “The Squire” who later ended up spending the last several years of his life in Marco Island.

Friday, Torre got to meet one of the lengthier player/caddie relationships on the tour, chatting with pro Ryan Palmer and caddie James Edmondson, who have been together for 20 years. He also met Lexi Thompson and Bubba Watson.

Torre talked with Edmondson and Palmer about Sarazen coming up with the idea for the modern sand wedge.

Torre recalled having to go out and shag balls when the pros practiced.

“He started out at 60 yards, then 80 yards, then 100 yards, and then 150,” Torre said.

Gene Sarazen, in the middle with the golf club, and fellow pro Juggs McSpadden, far right, give a clinic at Bartlett Country Club in Olean, New York. Tony Torre, a 97-year-old Naples resident who caddied for Sarazen in a different tournament, is in the middle of the photo, wearing sunglasses above another man in sunglasses.

Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. Support local journalism with this special subscription offer at https://cm.naplesnews.com/specialoffer/