“Her house was beautiful, in pristine condition,” Comboy said, “but it was all very, very old-fashioned.”

The caddies were used to living austerely on the road, often sharing rooms to save money, but Culpepper’s 1970s-era television was pushing it. They pooled their cash and bought a flat-screen TV for her to enjoy between their annual visits. Another year, they paid her to have a more powerful shower head installed.

“So we upgraded the house as we went,” Comboy said.

To show their appreciation, the caddies would set aside one night every tournament to cook Culpepper dinner. They prepared a cottage pie, stew or spaghetti, to be washed down with a couple of bottles of a fine merlot.

“We’d force-feed her two glasses of wine — she’d trot back to her little cottage at the bottom of the garden all sloshed,” Comboy said, laughing. “She used to have a great night. I think that’s probably why she allowed us to keep staying.”

Kerr, who is caddying for Vijay Singh this year, once received a scolding from Culpepper after he moved one of her antique chairs outdoors so he could sit on the porch. Another year, Comboy returned from the course and found Culpepper seated in her garden. A snake had slithered into her cottage, she told him. She asked if he could kindly remove it.

“I had to say, ‘Joyce, you’re going to have to get somebody else, because we don’t have snakes in Manchester. I don’t know what to do with it,’ ” Comboy said. “We got a neighbor around and cleared the place of snakes.”

Culpepper passed away in September 2010 at 79. The caddies knew she was growing frailer, but her death came as a surprise. The house was inherited by her niece, Colleen Boykin, who has added her own touches to her aunt’s Southern hospitality. Instead of the 12-pack of Heineken and 12-pack of Diet Coke that the caddies used to find stocked in the refrigerator, there is now a case of each.