Joe Barreiro, a fixture at Sleepy Hollow Country Club for more than fifty years, retires as Caddie and Golf Operations Manager after this season. The longtime caddie master was honored by club members and others at an event the day after the close of the golf season.
Barreiro began as a caddie at the Scarborough club in 1965. “I still remember my first loop,” he says. “It was for Mr. Robinson and I got $5.50 plus a fifty cent tip because he said he enjoyed my company. That was big money then. You could go to the Victoria Theater and see a movie with popcorn and a soda for fifty cents.” He became caddie master in 1973. He adds, “What started as a job became a love affair.”
At the event honoring Barreiro, Club President Robert Mayer said, “Over the course of his tenure as the Golf Operations Manager at Sleepy Hollow, Joe never took a sick day. That is over 16,400 days. Joe knows everyone from Members and their children to a member’s guest.
Former MGA executive director Jay Mottola and Caddie Golf Services Managers Association president Joe Pico presented Barreiro with a framed scroll at the event and the Westchester Caddie Scholarship Fund gave him a special commemorative book in recognition of his and Sleepy Hollow’s support of the fund. Nearly 100 of Barreiro’s caddies have qualified for WGA college scholarships during Barreiro’s tenure.
A surprise moment came when representatives of the Western Golf Association representing the Caddie Hall of Fame announced they were inducting him into the national Caddie Hall of Fame. Other notable members of The Caddie Hall of Fame include Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Gene Sarazen, and Sleepy Hollow member Bill Murray.
