Lil Drawdy

This much we know: Lil Drawdy didn't pick a bag to match her shoes. The bag belonged to her son Oswald, a 25-year-old pro competing in his first U.S. Open. Lil, 4'11" and 109 pounds, dragged Oswald's 35-pound golf bag around Baltusrol Golf Club last week for 36 holes.

A salesperson for Mary Kay Cosmetics, Lil has been caddying in tournaments for Oswald—a veteran of the Canadian and South African tours—since he was a teenager in Varnville, S.C. She even followed him around at Clemson, where he was an electrical engineering major and an academic All-America. In these events she was allowed to caddie out of a cart.

But when Lil, who's 52, learned carts would not be permitted at Oswald's U.S. Open qualifying tournament in Purchase, N. Y., she played 18 holes carrying her own bag on a course in South Carolina to get herself ready. "I told Oswald I could do it," she said to a local columnist. "I also told him I'd already bought my plane ticket." So while Oswald played in Purchase, and then at Baltusrol, Lil carried. "He decided on club selection," says the putter-packin' mama. "Once or twice I wanted to change him, but I didn't. Well, once I did. And it was the right club." Sadly, Team Drawdy's stay at the Open was a short one. Oswald missed the cut by eight strokes, and Lil was left holding the bag.

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ELISE AMENDOLA/AP

For two days a caddie at Baltusrol gave new meaning to the term "mother lode."