Napa native Spencer Seifert a caddie on PGA Tour
Spencer Seifert got a text message following Richy Werenski’s win in early August at the Barracuda Championship, a PGA Tour event, at the Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course in Truckee.
The text was from Jeff Brehaut, congratulating Seifert, a Napa native and the caddie for Werenski.
“Hey, way to go man. That’s awesome,” Seifert said, recalling the message from Brehaut.
Seifert responded with a text to Brehaut, who has played in PGA Tour, Nike Tour, Nationwide Tour, Web.com Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Champions events during his career.
“I said, ‘Dude, you’re the reason I’m still doing this.’ ”
It was Werenski’s first PGA Tour title. Playing in the tournament’s Modified Stableford scoring format, where players are allocated points based on their score for each hole, Werenski’s eagle-2 on a pitch shot on №16 highlighted a stretch where he earned 11 points over his final seven holes. In his 100th career start, he finished the week with 39 points, edging Troy Merritt by one point.
It was also the first time that Seifert has been on the bag for a win. He caddied for Dicky Pride from 2006 to 2016 and he caddied for Arnold Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, from 2017–2019.
“It wasn’t until the next day that it sort of set in, truthfully,” said Seifert. “It was awesome, really cool. Things weren’t really going our way on that front nine. It was to the point, hopefully we can make a few birdies coming in.”
Learning about golf from Jeff Brehaut and Jeff Wilson
Seifert, a resident of Sacramento and a 1994 graduate of Armijo High School in Fairfield, has learned so much about golf from both Brehaut and Jeff Wilson. The two were teammates on the men’s golf team at University of the Pacific.
Brehaut, a former resident of Vacaville, finished second at the PGA Tour Champions’ National Final Qualifying Tournament at TPC Eagle Trace in Coral Springs, Fla., in 2012. His history as a touring pro includes wins at the Nike Inland Empire Open in 1995 and the Nike Mississippi Gulf Coast Open in 1997. He won the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in 2002. He was the winner of the Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational in 2004. He spent nine years on the PGA Tour and has also worked as a teaching pro.
Wilson plays as an amateur and has the experience of having played in over 30 U.S. Golf Association national events during his career. He was the low amateur at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links in 2000. He has an outstanding record at the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, earning medalist honors three times. He was the medalist in stroke play qualifying at the U.S. Amateur in 2010.
Wilson was also the second low-amateur at the 2014 U.S. Senior Open, played at Oak Tree National Golf Club in Oklahoma. He qualified for the 2015 U.S. Senior Open at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento.
“I have to give those guys credit,” Seifert said of Brehaut and Wilson. “They are the reason why I continued to follow golf at the professional level, even though I wasn’t good enough to play. They kind of got me into the whole caddying thing.”
Seifert was just 18 years old at the time he caddied for Wilson in 1995 during a Nike Tour event at Almaden Golf & Country Club in San Jose.
“Having those guys when I’m literally in my mid-teens all the way through high school, having Jeff Wilson and Jeff Brehaut basically raise me on the golf course, is a big reason why I’m still doing this,” he said. “It’s the main reason I got into this. I learned a lot from those guys.”
Wilson and Brehaut each qualified for the U.S. Senior Open in 2013 at Omaha Country Club in Nebraska. They were co-medalists at a sectional qualifier at Green Valley.
Seifert grew up around the game, playing golf at Rancho Solano Golf Course and Paradise Valley Golf Course in Fairfield, as well as Green Valley Country Club. His family moved to Vacaville and later Fairfield.
“I’ve been involved in golf since about 8 or 9 years old,” he said. “I was a pretty good player in the area, but I didn’t have a bunch of accolades.”
Seifert, 44, started out caddying on the Nike Tour, Nationwide Tour, Web.com Tour and Korn Ferry Tour.
Joining Richy Werenski in 2019
He joined Werenski in September of 2019.
“Working for Richy, it’s been fun,” he said. “We pretty much hit the ground running. We got off to a good start. He’s a young guy. He’s hungry. He wants it.”
It’s a job that Seifert — who has relatives in Napa — thoroughly enjoys.
“It is pretty cool, seeing the country, being in situations, seeing the best players in the world up close,” he said. “I don’t take it for granted. It’s definitely really cool.
“From time to time, the travel obviously gets to everybody. But overall, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I have to remind myself from time to time, that what I’m doing is definitely pretty cool. A lot of people would like to do it.
“I’m able to be inside the ropes and see the best players in the world. I definitely appreciate it.”
In their first event together, Werenski tied for third in September of 2019 at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. It’s played at The Old White TPC in White Sulphur Springs, W.V.
Werenski has three Top-10 finishes during the 2019–20 season. He has nine career Top-10 finishes.
He tied for third at the 3M Open in July at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota.
“Progressively over the last few months, he has just started playing better and better,” said Seifert.
The win in Truckee earns Werenski a spot in the 2020 U.S. Open, to be played Sept. 17–20 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. He also gets exemptions into 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions, The Players Championship and multiple invitational events, the PGA Tour announced.
“This year has been really good, obviously,” Werenski said on www.asapsports.com. “It’s nice to finally get the win. I feel like my game is just getting better and better, so we’ll see what we can do with it.”
Weresnki got into the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. He missed the cut.
At the Northern Trust, the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs, he finished 68th.
This week, Werenski and Seifert are at the BMW Championship — a 69-player field — at Olympia Fields Country Club-North in Olympia Fields, Ill. The event determines the 30 players who will qualify for the playoff finale, the Tour Championship.
Photos courtesy of Spencer Seifert.
