By Steve Bigham

It has been 20 years since Dan Baker and Joe LaCava, Jr last caddied together on the links at Rock Ridge Country Club. Both loved the sport of golf, but, no doubt, neither could have ever dreamed of where it would take them.

LaCava is now a professional caddy on the PGA tour for Fred Couples, and the PGA employs Baker as a tournament director.

“If somebody had told us where we’d be now, we would have never believed them,” said Baker, a 1984 NHS graduate.

Baker, 32, was the PGA’s tournament director for last month’s Ryder Cup event at The Country Club in Brookline, MA. Preparation for the event began more than two years ago when Baker moved to the Boston area to take on the myriad of logistics, which accompany any major international golf tournament. From ticket sales and corporate marketing to transportation, portable toilets, dumpsters, and food service, Baker was the point man for it all.

And the tournament went off with a bang with the added bonus of a thrilling win for the Americans who stormed from behind to edge a gritty European team.

For Baker, a cool-under-pressure kind of a guy, being a full-time tournament director for the pro tour has been a dream come true. The roots of his success took shape when his parents, Richard and Louise Baker of Hyvue Drive, moved to Hyvue Road in Newtown. Their property abutted the driving range at the Rock Ridge Country Club. Soon, their son was making his way over to the course, where he earned money in the summer carrying bags, shining shoes and doing whatever else an ambitious 10-year-old will do. To this day, Baker takes those fond memories with him as he travels from one tournament to the next, rubbing elbows with the greatest names in the game.

“I lived close to the Rock Ridge. In fact, if you hooked one too far off the golf range, your ball would end up in my yard,” Baker told this Bee this week. “By 14, I ran the bag room. By 17, I was golf shop manager. I also started playing competitively at age 14. I guess I kind of got the golf bug. Rock Ridge really encouraged us to play golf. They let us play there for free after work.”

Baker’s golf game continued to improve over the years and he was a standout performer on Jim Casagrande’s successful teams of the early 1980s. Hoping to take his game to the next level, Baker headed to Wake Forest University. However, he soon discovered that, although he was quite good (about a three handicap), he would never make it on the pro tour. A taste of Division I golf assured him of that.

“I knew I was never going to be a tour pro. Those guys were head and shoulders above me,” recalled Baker, who was cut from the team his freshman year.

Nevertheless, Baker stayed on at Wake Forest where he earned a degree in economics. Upon graduation, he took a job as assistant pro at a course near Wake Forest. Eventually he accepted an offer to serve as assistant pro at Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury where he worked under club pro Robert Geambazi.

“I was thinking about going to law school, but I decided, `what the heck, I’ll put it off for a year.’ I ended up working there for four years,” Baker recalled.

During his days at Ridgewood, Baker became friendly with Danbury native and PGA pro Ken Green.

“One day, Ken called me from the Canadian Open and asked me if I’d run his charity event down in Florida,” Baker said.

What ended up being a 30-second job description over the phone turned out to be a major undertaking for Baker, who knew a little about running a club tournament, but soon found out the added responsibility of going big time.

“I had no idea how to sell corporate sponsorships, or how to coordinate tournament marketing,” Baker said.

But Baker wouldn’t be where he is today had he not been succeeded. The Calgreen Foundation was where Baker got his start, but it was his own impressive leadership and public relations skill which helped begin to open doors. He earned his PGA membership in the fall of 1992 and began running tournaments all across the country. Much of it was free-lance work, which had its share of challenges.

“I was eating hand to mouth there for awhile,” said Baker, who started his own one-man tournament directing company called Premier Golf Events.

In the fall of ‘95, Baker’s company was tabbed to run the Walker Cup, a USGA event for amateurs, at Quaker Ridge Golf Course in Scarsdale, NY. Baker was paid to take care of all pre-planning and the end result was another big success. During his two-year stint in Scarsdale, Baker met his future boss, Mike Gilligan of the PGA, who was in the area preparing for the 1997 PGA tournament at Wing Foot in Mamaroneck, NY.

“Gilligan was promoted - following Wing Foot - to director of operations for all PGA championships and Ryder Cup events,” Baker said. “He was looking for two tournament directors - one to do the PGA Championship in Chicago and one to do the Ryder Cup. I was chosen to do the Ryder Cup. I guess I was in the right place at the right time.”

Just a few weeks later, Baker was off to Boston where he would live for the next two years. Packing up and moving to the next city is certainly not the most rewarding part of the job, said Baker, who is single.

“Unfortunately, that’s part of the game,” he said.

But Baker says he wouldn’t have it any other way. He loves the sport and he loves his job. What more could a guy want?

No doubt, his parents, who still reside in Newtown, are proud of their son’s accomplishments.

“They wanted a professional in the family, but I don’t think they were thinking golf,” Baker said.

The crowds and the players are long gone from what was an unforgettable Ryder Cup tourney, but Baker and a few fellow PGA staffers are still on site. It can be a lonely feeling, he said.

“I get a little depressed afterwards. It was the same with the Walker Cup. You put two years of your life into something that lasts for six days,” he said.

Baker has grown to appreciate all that Boston has to offer, but he knows he can’t get too attached. Soon he’ll be off to the next tournament site . . . wherever that may be.