Gullane Golf Club is one of Scotland’s most celebrated golfing destinations. With three courses, a deep tradition of caddying, and on a busy day, around 70 caddie jobs to coordinate across the property. That’s a lot of moving parts.
A Club Like No Other
Managing it all falls to Scott and Simon, caddiemasters at Gullane Golf Club. Crucially, they’re not sitting in an office all day, they’re out ranging, starting groups, talking to guests, and ducking back into the box to keep everything running.
For them, efficiency isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s everything.
Life Before Handicaddie: Spreadsheets and Copy-Paste
When we asked Scott & Simon about the old way of doing things, they simply said:
“We used to keep all our caddy jobs on an Excel spreadsheet, which worked to an extent but we knew there had to be a better way.”
Alongside the spreadsheet headaches, communicating with the caddie pool meant manually copying and pasting emails whenever they needed to get a message out. Dress code reminders, schedule updates, last-minute changes: all of it done the slow, manual way.
It worked, but it left a lot of room for things to go wrong.
The Transformation
Since bringing Handicaddie on board around two and a half years ago, Scott and Simon describe a shift that goes beyond just saving time. The word they keep coming back to is revolutionary.
“It’s totally revolutionised the way we work here.”
What does that look like day-to-day? Instead of wrestling with spreadsheet rows for 100 caddies, it’s now drag and drop.
“Imagine when you’re working off a spreadsheet with 100 people, and now it’s just drag and drop.”
Jobs Released Instantly, No Chasing Required
Jobs are prepared up to a month in advance and held in draft until they’re ready to release, with Gullane typically publishing jobs 29 days out. At that point, the jobs go out to caddies instantly, without anyone having to chase a single person.
“There was one of the senior staff who’d been chasing folk up in the morning. There isn’t any need to do that.”
Messaging That Works Like WhatsApp
And the messaging system, one of Handicaddie’s recent additions to the platform, has been a particular game-changer.
“The messaging thing that you’ve brought in this year is fantastic. That saves us copying and pasting a load of emails. It’s instant. It’s just like WhatsApp.”
For a team that’s constantly in motion between three courses and multiple roles, that kind of immediacy matters enormously for Gullane.
Three Courses, One Platform
What makes Gullane’s setup particularly impressive, and worth noting for clubs who may think their operation is too complex for a new system, is the scale they’re working at.
Gullane boasts 3 courses with approximately 100 caddies, with jobs filled weeks in advance across different tee sheets and timings.
“You’ve got a dropdown list at the top. We can then select each individual course and then we can go through the timings for each course. Or we can have all 3 up.”
Simon is quick to point out that if anything, simpler one-course setups should find things even easier:
“If you were working on one course and, you know, set visitor times, it would be an absolute doddle.”
The dedicated print feature added after Gullane asked for it has also made a meaningful difference for the wider team. Rangers heading out on the course and staff doing meet-and-greet can see exactly which caddies are with which groups. A small thing, perhaps, but one that removes a source of daily confusion.
What About the Caddies?
One concern caddie masters sometimes raise is whether their caddies, particularly older or less tech-savvy members of the team will actually get on board. At Gullane, there were a few initial nerves.
“Some of the older caddies initially were a little bit sceptical because we’ve got caddies ranging from 18 to… well, there’s the potential of some technophobes.”
The approach Scott and Simon took was straightforward: sit down with anyone who needed help, walk them through it, and keep it simple.
“All you’ve got to do is spend the time sitting down just going into it, and you can break it down with instructions very simply. Once you get into it, it’s so simple to use.”
The payoff? Those same caddies who were hesitant at the start are now firmly on board.
“I genuinely think that all the caddies now absolutely love it. They wouldn’t want to go back to anything other than it.”
Reliability You Can Count On
In two and a half years of daily use, Scott and Simon have a clear view of where issues come from, and it isn’t the platform.
“It’s pretty well foolproof, and the only times that we’ve ever had any issues with the system has not been the system’s fault, it’ll be user error. The system’s never let us down.”
That reliability matters deeply for a club like Gullane, where caddying is a central part of the guest experience and there’s no room for the admin to become the story.
A Partnership That Keeps Improving
One thing that comes through clearly in speaking with Scott and Simon is the sense that Handicaddie isn’t just a tool they use, it’s something that’s grown alongside them.
“There’s loads of different stuff that you’ve produced over the last couple of years that wasn’t there at the start, and it’s just making it easier and easier every week.”
The relationship with their contact Jamie has been a particular highlight.
“Every time we come to you or to Jamie with questions or ideas, Jamie has been absolutely brilliant. He can see all the improvements all the time.”
And the goal, shared by both sides, is simple: get to the point where everything lives inside Handicaddie, and the workarounds disappear entirely.
“We want to get to the stage where we don’t require any other systems to support the club’s needs.”
In Their Own Words
Asked what they’d tell a hesitant caddie master thinking about making the switch, Scott and Simon said: “don’t overthink it.”
The before is clear: a spreadsheet which worked to an extent, manual emails, and mornings spent chasing people up.
The after? A system that’s totally revolutionised the way they work: simpler, faster, and reliable enough that after two and a half years, it’s never let them down.
Gullane Golf Club has been using Handicaddie for approximately 2.5 years. They manage three courses with a caddie pool of around 100 active caddies.
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