Danny Noonan

Living… at a junction in life. He just recently graduated from high school with mediocre grades, and now he must face the real world. He lives in a stereotypical working class Catholic family, with a litany of siblings and mother and father struggling to pay the bills, let alone Danny’s college tuition. Danny’s career aptitude test predicted he would be an “underachiever,” and he is worried he will fulfill that prophecy. He doesn’t want to work a blue-collar job for the rest of his life. “I gotta go to college,” he says. “I gotta.” 

Profession… golf caddy. Every morning Danny bikes across the tracks and past rows of mansions to carry golf clubs at the swanky Bushwood Country Club. When not out on the course with all manner of wealthy folk, he hangs out with Bushwood’s legion of caddies, all sporting red caps, at the caddyshack, run by the degenerate gambler Lou Loomis. Danny makes about thirty dollars per day, plus tips. His father tells him: “Put it in the college fund!”

Interests… drinking several Cokes a day. He is also a skilled golfer, his old-fashioned swing carving an elegant arc and ending in a picturesque pose worthy of Bobby Jones. 

Relationship Status… dating Maggie, a fiery young Irishwoman who runs the Bushwood snack stand and busses tables at night. But Bushwood president Judge Smails has a niece, Lacey Underall, in town for the summer from Manhattan. Lacey is a seductress if there ever was one. Danny is entranced and, perhaps surprisingly, he might actually have a chance.

Challenge… acquiring the funds to pay for his college tuition. Luckily, Judge Smails’ caddy scholarship was recently opened up to applicants due to the death of recent scholarship recipient Carl Lipbaum. If Danny wants the scholarship, he must relentlessly suck up to Smails. And winning the annual caddy tournament wouldn’t hurt. 

Personality… laid-back and unpretentious, yet earnest. Danny is not the coolest cat in the caddyshack, but hey, that’s alright, because he doesn’t purport to the coolest cat. He is content to just be himself. Unless Judge Smails is around, in which case he puffs himself up into the spitting image of the sort of promising young man who would win the caddy scholarship.