THE LOOPER

I spent Father’s Day of 2025 watching JJ Spaun win the US Open. Ranked 25th in the world he was not a complete unknown, but with only a single win on the PGA tour he was at best a dark horse to win the tournament.

JJ started the final day in second place; only one shot off the lead. But he took an immediate nosedive with five bogeys in the first six holes. He had some incredibly bad luck on the second hole, where he hit a great shot into the green that should have set him up for a birdie. Instead, it hit the flagstick and rocketed back into the fairway, leaving him with a bogey. It is one thing to get a terrible result from a terrible shot, but another thing entirely to get a terrible result from a great shot. It is as if the golf gods have spoken—and they have said “JJ, this is not your day."

JJ ended up with a 40 on the front nine, four shots behind the leader and moving in the wrong direction. Then the heavens opened, and rain delayed play for an hour and thirty-seven minutes. Afterwards, JJ Spaun was a different player. He shot a 32 on the back nine, dropping a 64-foot putt on the 18th hole to win the tournament. It was an incredible comeback and a remarkable story.

For some reason, what caught my attention watching JJ fight back from travail to triumph was his caddy, the “looper.” Looper is slang for caddy because he helps the golfer navigate the course—the loop—from the clubhouse and back around again. Normally I do not take much notice of the looper when I am watching a golf tournament on television. I see him, but I do not focus on him. He is in the background. But this was different. I did notice Spaun’s looper, Mark Carens.

Like a lot of caddies on the PGA tour, Mark is a good golfer himself, good enough to have won some local tournaments when he was a young man. But by the age of thirty, he must have realized he was not good enough to compete as a player and focused himself on looping instead. He has been carrying JJ’s bag since 2021.

Here is what I saw on the day he helped JJ Spaun win the US Open. Mark not only CARRIED JJ’s clubs, as all loopers do for their golfer. Mark ENCOURAGED JJ through that terrible front nine, helping him fight through the obstacles. Then, after the delay, Mark held an umbrella over JJ’s head while the rain was pouring down on the back nine, PROTECTING him during the storm. Then Mark COUNSELED JJ on the 18th green as he confronted the opportunity to make the biggest putt of his career. And then Mark CELEBRATED with JJ after his ball dropped into the hole.

And finally, and this is what really caught my attention, Mark stepped back so that JJ could fully occupy the spotlight of his wonderful accomplishment.

And I thought, here is a guy who looks to be about sixty years old who surely had his own dreams of greatness, helping a man thirty years his junior to reach the pinnacle of achievement, and then stepping humbly back to minimize his own contribution.

And I thought, this is who I want to be in the life of younger people, a man who:

• Carries burdens

• Encourages through obstacles

• Protects from storms

• Counsels during crisis

• Celebrates in victory . . . but then steps back in humility

Please Lord, help me to be that man for my children, their children, and any other young person that God chooses to place before me.

Help me be The Looper.