It has been very sad today to learn of the passing of Brian McFeat.
Brian was known to so many players, officials and his fellow caddies as one of the legends on the European Tour.
Among the first to pay tribute was former Ryder Cup star Nicolas Colsaerts while I was just chatting with triple Major winning Padraig Harrington here at Firestone Country Club and he also expressed his sadness.
Harrington’s long-time caddy Ronan Flood was also upset to learn the news Brian had passed away in his sleep.
Scotland’s Paul Lawrie has also expressed his sadness in posting a tribute on his Twitter page.
However paying special tribute was Italy’s Francesco Molinari as Brian was his first caddy when he joined the European Tour.
Francesco posted the following in his Twitter page:
“Sad to hear about Brian McFeat, my first caddie on tour who died earlier today. One of the familiar faces on European Tour, he’ll be missed!”
And news of Brian’s death comes too soon after Iain McGregor collasped and died while caddying at the Maderia Islands Open not so long ago.
Tour Miss and I last saw Brian at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open after he had kindly brought a few items in the van from the previous week’s French Open. Then when we arrived at Gullane Brian went very much out of his way to ensure the two bags were transferred to our vehicle with the minimum of fuss.
That was the important role Brian shared on Tour with fellow caddy Gerry Byrne, and that is the task of conveying the players golf bags from one Tour stop to another.
In fact, Harrington was enquiring about loading his own clubs onto the van leaving Firestone this afternoon and bound for Whistling Straits.
Brian spent many hours on the road criss-crossing Europe and thereby alleviating players having pay airlines sky high ‘excess luggage’ fees so that when they arrived at a new tournament, as the scenario recently at Gullane, their golf bag would there waiting for them.
Brian undertook the role without fuss or bother.
He always had a kind word to say and you could easily spend hours ‘chewing the fat’ with Brian.
I know I speak on behalf of my many journalist colleagues working the European Tour in that Brian’s ginger-coloured hair and his warm engaging manner will be very sorely missed.
