Rocky Pantalone (center) caddied at Wilmington Country Club for nearly half a century.

Longtime Wilmington caddie steps down, club steps up to help

  Rocky Pantalone — the name is fitting.

  He is a fighter, a hard-worker and an underdog. He is dedicated to his craft and passionate about what it represents. Pantalone spent 46 years as a caddie at Wilmington Country Club. He retired last month after being diagnosed with a cancerous tumor that doctors believe is terminal.

   “It hit me really hard. I knew when I was going to run out of steam,” Pantalone said. “When I can’t perform the service that I’ve wanted to perform my whole life, I’m not going to take away from someone’s game. I knew it was time to step away.”

  What isn’t rocky is Pantalone’s affection for Wilmington. His father Gigi was a longtime caddie at the club (working as Arnold Palmer’s personal bag-totter during his visits) and brought Pantalone to the course at age 12. Consider it love at first sight.

   “That place was my second home,” Pantalone said. “I loved every second I was ever on the property. I was up there every day. I really enjoyed working there.”

  A beady-eyed Pantalone caddied at Wilmington throughout his youth. He looped the South Course until its closure each November, and manned its North counterpart year-round. He served in the United States Navy for three years, spending his leave on Wilmington’s grounds. Pantalone also worked evenings at a Chrysler outfit for four years while carving out caddie time during the days.

   “It wasn’t because of money. It becomes part of what you do,” he said. “You go there because you want to be there. I was excited about being there every morning. I was never going to retire. I figured I’d be there until the day they closed the lid on me.”

  That day never came. Pantalone’s condition relentlessly took its toll and forced the Wilmington, Del. resident to exit caddying. Shortly thereafter, while he and his wife Laura were trying to determine how they would fund chemotherapy treatments, they heard a knock at the door. Wilmington’s head professional Joe Guillebeau, accompanied by members Bill McDonald and Dr. Joe Hacker, arrived to inform Pantalone of “A Round for Rocky” — a club event dedicated toward raising funds for the Pantalone family.

   “That floored me,” Pantalone said. “I had no idea what was going on. I’m never speechless, and the tears started flowing. Just thinking about it now gets to me. The way everyone at that club did something to take the pressure off…I never knew it ran that deep. They are family. I’ve always considered it that way.”

   “The days of the guy that walks in the door at 10 years old and caddies until he’s 56 are less and less,” Guillebeau said. “He’s been carrying bags for the guys that have come here and played in the GAP Team Matches as long as we’ve been doing it. He’s one of those regular caddies like a lot of clubs have in Philadelphia. He’s a lifer. Our caddies use to wear jumpsuits, and we have his father’s jumpsuit retired and framed in our caddie room. It’s the only one. It’s kind of the end of an era.”

   “A Round for Rocky” participants paid a $10 entry fee, which went toward prizes. Any donations on top of said fee went to the Pantalone family. Overall, Wilmington raised more than $9,000.    “We had a great response from our membership,” Guillebeau said. “The $9,000 came in the form of $10, $20, $30 donations. It wasn’t like some sugar daddy pulled out all of this money.”

  Throughout his 46 years at Wilmington, Pantalone carried bags for golfers of all different backgrounds — athletes, CEOs, competitive amateurs, etc.

   “I never was a ‘Yes man,’ he said. “I’ll let you know what’s on my mind. I could walk around the golf course blindfolded and read you a putt.”

   “He knows the course backwards and forwards,” McDonald added. “He doesn’t need to look at the yardage stakes. He could read the greens, and he really makes every effort, if you ask him, to give you the shot, to read the putt. He’s very well known and thought of. A friend of mine had two guys who were pretty fair players in to play the South Course. Rocky was their caddie, each of them came away and said they’ve never had a better caddie, and they played at some pretty significant golf courses.”

  How impactful was Pantalone as a caddie? In 1994, he worked the McDonald’s LPGA Championship at DuPont Country Club, where he met Cindy Figg-Currier and subsequently joined her on tour for a time. At a stop in Ohio for the Jamie Farr Toldeo Classic, he and Figg-Currier arrived at the first tee to play in the event’s Pro-Am. Thousands of fans gathered to get an autograph from Charles Barkley. The famed NBA figure recognized Pantalone and immediately shouted his name. Figg-Currier’s reaction?

   “She says, ‘God is there anybody you don’t know,” Pantalone said.

  Pantalone considers such widespread recognition to be a reflection of his work.

   “I’ve never had a hard time with anyone out there, to tell you the truth,” he said. “They all treated me the same.”

   “His name fits him well. He’s a rock, a fixture out there,” Hacker, a Wilmington member of 18 years, said. “He’s npt only a great caddie but he’s a great guy to be around.”

  Likewise, Pantalone treated Wilmington’s caddie collective with kindness and guidance, always lending a hand to the younger crowd.

   “That’s what I enjoyed the most,” he said. “Show them the basics, and they’ll pick up the rest after that.”

  Pantalone’s worked hundreds upon thousands of events at Wilmington, including the 2003 U.S. Mid-Amateur. He caddied for Alan Hill of Spring Branch Texas, who reached the semifinals before falling to eventual champion Nathan Smith, 5&4. To this day, Pantalone still receives Christmas and birthday cards from Hill.

  Although he’s leaving Wilmington, the club will never depart from Pantalone’s heart. His caddie career came full-circle this fall.

   “My first loop was for the ‘Queen of the nine-hole ladies,” Pantalone said. “On the third hole, which was the 12th hole then, she hit her ball right in the middle of the pond. I couldn’t get to it with her retriever. She said, ‘Hold on. We’ll wait for the tide to come in. Now I’m 12 years old and I know there’s not a tide in a pond. But I said, ‘Yes ma’am.’ We waited. The ball moved closer to us after geese landed on the pond and started a wake. I picked it up and after the round, she gave me eight quarters — $2, which was a lot of money in 1967.

   “My last loop was for Dr. Joe Hacker and his friend Andy Lubin. They gave me $200 afterwards. It was just a funny number. I did walk off at the right time.”

   “It was a memorable round and ended in tears for everybody,” Hacker added.

  It’s hard to put a price on Pantalone’s value to the club and its membership, and vice versa.    “I wouldn’t have spent my life any other way,” Pantalone said. “It’s not how much you have; it’s what you have in your life that makes you happy. It never felt like a job to me. If I had to do it again, I’d do the same thing.”

   “Rocky is a hard gruff guy on the outside but has a heart of gold on the inside,” McDonald said. “You don’t look at him as a caddie; you look at him as a friend.”