A Wichita caddie makes a go of it on the Web.com Tour

Almost four months have passed, but Kevin Barron can clearly envision the shot that helped propel Ethan Tracy to a Web.com Tour victory in Colombia.

“One hundred one yards,” Barron said. “I knew it was going to be a good shot when it left the club. It landed short, bounced a couple times past the hole and rolled back in.

“I saw it and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, high five.’ ”

A little later, after a playoff with Roberto Diaz, Tracy had his first tour victory and an early candidate for shot of the year. Meanwhile, Barron, a former Wichita resident, got the perfect outcome as a fill-in caddie for Tracy in a partnership forged during the previous tournament on a shuttle bus in the Bahamas.

“It was a one-week deal because his caddie couldn’t come,” said Barron, a 1989 Southeast High graduate who lives in Shalimar, Fla. “I’ve seen Ethan every week out here, and there’s still just a lot of good feelings from that.”

Like the golfers who employ them, caddies are nomads of the tour circuit. Barron, who caddied part-time for professionals and amateurs during a 24-year career with UPS, decided last year to make it his full-time job.

When the Air Capital Classic begins Thursday at Crestview Country Club, Barron will carry the bag for Web.com rookie Chris Worrell for the fourth consecutive tournament.

“Chris grew up in Enid (Okla.) and being close to Wichita, we knew a lot of the same people,” Barron said. “We got together a few weeks ago in Greenville (S.C.), and we hope to keep it going through the end of the year.”

The partnership has yet to pay huge dividends as Worrell, a 26-year-old who played collegiately at Tulsa, missed his second consecutive cut Friday in the Rust-Oleum Championship in suburban Chicago. But Worrell also shot 68 and 66 in his first two rounds with Barron at the BMW Charity Pro-Am and tied for 34th.

“Since I’ve been doing this, I’ve gotten to see a lot of swings, gotten to know a lot of players and what drives them,” Barron said. “You just try to help them maximize those strengths to the best of their ability.

“Growing up where he did, Chris is a very good wind player and he knows how to hit a lot of shots using the wind to his advantage.”

Barron first caddied 20 years ago while working at Willowbend Golf Club – the Air Capital Classic’s previous home – during a UPS strike. He worked Wichita’s Web.com stop for the first time in 1999 and two years later, after hosting tour pro Brian Wilson during what was then called the Wichita Open, he made his PGA Tour debut with Wilson at the John Deere Classic.

Barron continued to caddie part-time through the years and moved to Florida in 2014. At the urging of fellow tour caddie Dave Mueller, Barron partnered with Web.com veteran Matt Davidson toward the end of last season and continued working through the tour’s various stages of qualifying for the current season.

That experience, coupled with a brief stint with PGA Tour player Rick Lamb this spring during a break in the Web.com schedule, led Barron toward his job with Worrell.

“Since I was already doing it, I just wanted to get a little more experience,” Barron said. “We started the year in the Bahamas and I met Ethan by chance on that shuttle bus.

“It’s nice when your player wins because you suddenly look like that free agent in baseball with 25 home runs and 75 RBIs.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2017 at 2:02 PM with the headline "A Wichita caddie makes a go of it on the Web.com Tour."