Caddie Hulka hauls a big load for TOUR players

That 2-hour drive from Palm Harbor, Florida, to Orlando earlier this week was like “crossing the streetâ€� for Steve Hulka. Maybe not for you and me. But Hulka, who had recently finished a three-day, coast-to-coast drive hauling a 24-foot trailer filled with eight tons of luggage and golf gear, has a little different perspective. The longtime PGA TOUR caddie started a business in the fall of 2002 called HOPE — which is an acronym for Hulka’s Overland Players Express. His regular clients have grown from six pros at the start to over 50 this year with the assorted Sunday night walk-ups welcome, too. Since starting the business, Hulka is on his fourth Chevy Silverado, a brand new 2018 model, as well as his fifth trailer. The first was a 16-footer but the demand increased so much that Hulka had to go to one that’s 8 feet longer several years ago. In an average year, Hulka drives about 45,000 miles, making the total entering this year right around 675,000. No word on how many times he’s changed the oil in the truck – that’s what Hulka was doing recently when he broke for a telephone interview — or had the tires rotated. That recent trip from Los Angeles to West Palm Beach is the longest of the year. Three days and 2,700 miles later – including driving through what Hulka calls a “Biblical stormâ€� – the truck was unloaded. Without fail by Tuesday, though, anxious players started calling to see how close their overland express was. “One of those players that called looking for us on Tuesday, I go, so do you have to make a Target run for socks and underwear?â€� Hulka says with a smile. “He left all his suitcases with us thinking, you know, OK. But to, his defense, he took three weeks off prior to that. So he wasn’t really thinking (about how far it was.)â€� The idea for his business was hatched in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Hulka was traveling back from his aunt’s funeral and he was struck by the increased security he encountered at the airport. “I could not fathom the fact that our army were standing there with M-16s and there was a 2-hour line and all I had was the backpack,â€� Hulka recalls. “I was like, how are the players going to get their gear with their wives and their children and their clubs and their suitcases and everything … if this is how the landscape for flying has changed so drastically.â€� Hulka was caddying for Pat Bates at the time. Over the next 10 months or so, he and Bates and Ben Crane, Jonathan Byrd and Paul Stankowski often brainstormed how they might make travel easier. Stankowski finally suggested that Hulka rent a truck from Ryder, which at the time sponsored the tournament at Doral. Hulka eventually decided the best way would be to buy a truck and a trailer. He called Henry Hughes, who was then an executive vice president at the PGA TOUR, and pitched the idea. Turns out, a caddie on what is now called PGA TOUR Champions had a similar plan. So within 24 hours, Hulka wrote an eight-page business plan and sent it to Hughes. “I figured, OK, the first guy that gets his business plan to Henry’s is going to get this opportunity,â€� Hulka recalls. “So I made sure I was first. And Henry called me a day later and he said, Hulka, we love your plan. You’ve covered all your bases and you are good to go.â€� Hulka’s six original clients quickly grew. The word of mouth was overwhelmingly positive and it wasn’t long before Hulka realized that he and Stankowski and the rest were right — HOPE filled a niche for TOUR players who average 20-25 weeks on the road a year. Hulka’s wife Mary, who was his graveyard shift driver for many years, found stackable, 55-gallon rolling bins at the Container Store. The pros buy those and pack away children’s toys, rain gear and other supplies, essentially giving them an extra locker, and then Hulka loads them on the truck and hauls them to the next event. “They’re pretty sturdy and they’re big enough to hold lots of stuff,â€� he says. “And some of them weigh hundred pounds because those girls can pack.â€� Hulka has also transported exercise bikes, training tables and motorcycles — even a mattress that a player uses when the one at the hotel or home he’s renting isn’t comfy enough. And don’t forget the new golf towels that the caddies get every week – including some very specific brands, such as AT&T for Jordan Speith and RBC for their six-man team. “We’ve got four different towels on our truck trailer, just boxes of towels,â€� Hulka says. “They get shipped out to us. In fact when you called me, I was on my way to the laundromat to wash the dirty ones because we keep a supply of rewashes for the rainy days.â€� It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, er, driving, though. One year, as Hulka drove through the Florida Panhandle near Bubba Watson’s home in Bagdad, he heard two loud booms and realized both tires on the passenger side had blown. “We actually had to sleep in the trailer because it happened at 3 o’clock in the morning,â€� Hulka says. “Well, I got one spare not two … but that one spare we put it on, we jacked up the trailer, put it on, and we limped down the highway another 30 miles to Baghdad. And we, we waited until 7 for this tire store to open up so we could get some new tires.â€� The truck lost an entire wheel assembly in Sharon, Pennsylvania, on Monday night during another drive from Boston to St. Louis during the FedExCup Playoffs. Hulka had to rent another trailer, re-pack and leave his own to be fixed. He arrived at the Ritz-Carlton in St. Louis at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night. “I heard later from (TOUR official) Ross Berlin that Geoff Ogilvy walked out on the range in tee shirt shorts and flip flops,â€� Hulka chuckles. “And he goes, Geoff, what are you doing? He goes, ‘Oh, you haven’t heard about the Hulkas?’ They’re back in Pennsylvania. They had a breakdown. I don’t have any luggage. “And we never lost a beat other than we were half a day late getting into St. Louis. That’s been the only really set back that we’ve had in the 16 years of the business where we were actually late. I guess that’s a pretty good fielding percentage.â€� For many years, Hulka’s wife Mary helped shoulder the driving and packing duties, literally, as well as figuratively. “Boy, could she schlepp luggage,â€� Hulka says, noting his wife often loaded the truck herself on Sunday night while he finished his caddying duties. Then they’d hit Cracker Barrel and head out for the next tournament stop. He’d take the first shift while she slept and then they’d trade places. Mary has now gone into “semi-retirement,â€� as her husband puts it, and spends most of her time back home in Phoenix being a grandmother. Their son, Ben, who was the manager of the football team at Arizona and later spent four years working for the Seattle Seahawks, has now joined the family business. “He puts stickers on Nick Foles’ helmets (at Arizona),â€� Hulka says. “Isn’t that something? Now here’s Nick Foes, Super Bowl MVP.â€� Oh, and the Seahawks won the Super Bowl the first year Ben worked for the NFL team. “So he really had a great four years, met the love of his life and now he’s working for us,â€� Hulka says. The biggest difference between having Mary and Ben on the road with him? Now he eats at Chipotle on Sunday night. “This millennial thing,â€� Hulka says good-naturedly. “Cracker Barrel’s too grandma, grandpa and they got to do Chipotle so we can get going a little quicker.â€� Hulka, who is 65, thinks he has another three years or so before he retires and Ben takes the business over. Hulka will caddie this year for Chad Collins, starting with next week’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open and then moving full-time to the PGA TOUR. “(I’d like to) get him to the top and then walk off into the sunset,â€� Hulka says. Or, he can always drive.

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