Claiming there to be nowhere else on earth Derek Sanders would rather be this week than in Endicott, New York, might be a hard sell to most. But, as the story unravels and offers perspective, the picture comes much more into focus.

The short version is that the legendary caddie is at this week’s DICK'S Open on PGA TOUR Champions – not as a looper, but one being looped for.

“On Saturday afternoon, while my wife and I were home getting ready to go to a wedding, my phone rang,” Sanders, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native said. “Something in the back of my mind told me to look and see who it was.”

The incoming call was from DICK'S Open Tournament Director John Karedes.

“After I answered, John laughed and said he was so glad I’d answered because he didn’t want his news left on my voicemail,” Sanders said. “He went on to say this was the official call. He congratulated me on earning a spot into this week’s DICK’S Open field.”

With the news and Karedes still on the line, Derek promptly walked into the other room where his wife, Shanna, was getting ready. He put Karedes on speaker and asked him to share the news again for her to hear.

“Even she teared up,” he said. “So, here I am.”

With what is the storied career of a gentleman who has been everywhere and through most everything in life, the news warranted their tears of joy.

After determining that “school wasn’t really for me,” in 1989, Sanders went to work as an assistant golf professional in Montgomery, Alabama, under Phillip Hancock, who, 10 years earlier, had won the PGA TOUR’s Hall of Fame Classic at Pinehurst No. 2.

After a few years there, Sanders, an impressive player, went back to school in an effort to secure some form of playing eligibility.

In the ensuing years, he would bounce between school and jobs. He would also meet Shanna, the woman who would become his wife. After graduating from the University of New Orleans in 1992, the Air Force hired her to work at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, focusing on the hotel, restaurant and tourism industry.

Derek relocated with her, taking a job at Innisbrook Resort as a golf professional under Jay Overton.

In 1994, while visiting Innisbrook, Sanders was asked to join PGA TOUR players John Huston and Brian Claar for a round of golf. Claar was so impressed that the next day, he offered Sanders a job as his caddie.

“I told Brian how grateful I was for the ask, but that I didn’t know anything about caddying,” Sanders recalled. “He countered by saying that I knew the game of golf and was a good player. I told him that before I made a decision, I needed to talk with my boss, Jay Overton.”

Overton encouraged Sanders to give it a go for a few weeks and assured him his job at Innisbrook would be safe if things didn’t work out.

The next Monday, Sanders started with Claar, in – of all places – Hawaii.

“The first thing I did after that was call my dad and tell him I was headed to Hawaii,” Sanders said. “I did that for two weeks and then called Jay to say I wasn’t coming back. Jay’s encouraging response was ‘We all knew that’. That started my caddie career.”

Sanders would spend the ensuing two years with Claar. Following a “good year” from Claar in 1995, with Derek’s cut, he bought a wedding ring for Shanna and married her in 1996.

“I then caddied Brian right off the TOUR in 1996,” Derek laughed. “Now, he’s a PGA TOUR rules official… and it’s all my fault.”

When the newlyweds moved back to Louisiana for Shanna’s Shreveport job, Derek would secure a job in the golf industry with Southern Trace, before making his way to Metairie Country Club in New Orleans.

In 2005, Sanders got his Class A status en route to his job as director of golf at English Turn Golf Club in New Orleans.

That position would keep him busy for the four to five years before it ran its course.

“When that happened, I was sitting in my office at home wondering what was next for me,” he said. “I called John Huston and told him I was ready to return as his caddie. He said to first check with my wife to make sure it’s what we both wanted.”

Sanders assured Huston that it was actually her decision.

“To this day, I don’t know if it was motivated by wanting me out of the house or going to do something I loved,” he laughed.

Sanders began again with Huston in 2012 at the SAS Championship in North Carolina, which, incidentally, was a year removed from Huston’s win at the DICK'S Open at En-Joie Golf Club. The duo finished in second place that week in Cary.

That working relationship lasted upwards of two years until Huston got hurt.

“I found myself back in my office, again wondering what for me would be next,” Derek said.

He would go on to spend two years with Brad Faxon before stints with David Toms and Gene Sauers. In 2016, with Sanders on his bag, Sauers won the 2016 U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club in Ohio.

“The check I made with Gene from that win basically turned life around for me and my wife,” Sanders recalled. “We ended up relocating to North Carolina and called our place ‘The house that Gene Sauers built’. I then started with Woody Austin and began referring to our home as ‘The house Woody Austin’s paying for’.”

Sanders would spend the next seven years with Austin.

In 2022, while at Firestone Country Club, Jerry Kelly approached Sanders to ask if he would caddie for him in Canada, given that Jerry’s regular caddie hadn’t gotten vaccinated, rendering him unable to enter Canada.

“Because Woody wasn’t playing that week, I quickly accepted the job,” Sanders said. “But, I then remembered that was the same week my wife and I had planned a vacation. I went home and explained the situation, to which Shanna replied, ‘Jerry Kelly? Isn’t that the guy that wins all the time?’ Let’s just say she insisted we reschedule our vacation.”

With Sanders on the bag the week of Canada, Jerry won.

“I can’t help but feel like I’ve had a history of being in the right place at the right time in my life,” Sanders said.

When Sanders and Austin amicably parted ways, Sanders worked for a few other players, including Stephen Allan and Jason Caron.

About that time, Sanders’ trek towards this week at the DICK'S Open took shape.

“Around 2022, John Karedes called me,” Sanders recalled. “He told me he couldn’t promise anything, but that he felt offering me a spot in his DICK'S Open field was getting close.”

For perspective, over the course of his career leading up to that point, Sanders competed in 11 Korn Ferry Tour events and three PGA TOUR events. He very much hoped to complete the trifecta and tee it up – at least once – in a PGA TOUR Champions event.

Even though he knew it was “old school,” Sanders took great pride in handwriting letters to tournament directors.

“I was brought up to treat people the way you wish to be treated,” Sanders said of his parents. “It’s what I’ve tried to instill in my two daughters, Kennedy and Kate.”

Every January, Sanders wrote Karedes a letter asking for a spot to compete in the DICK'S Open field.

“This week, I get to do that. It’s a very emotional week for me,” a teary-eyed Sanders said Wednesday at En-Joie. “Do I deserve this opportunity? From a golf standpoint, probably not. But, from the standpoint of me as the person I am, well, it shows that people have faith in me.”

Driven by his kindness and character, regardless of what his scorecard says, Derek’s presence at En-Joie this week is, indeed, a victory for him. Equally significant is that it’s a major win for all those whose lives he has impacted and enhanced.

“I’d like to be remembered as a good guy….maybe a little funny, too,” Sanders laughed. “I also hope people will remember me as a good guy who always did what he said he would do.”

To help with the tournament’s charitable efforts this week, Sanders spoke to and spent time with the kids of the Boys & Girls Club-Western Broome.

“I went in and shot free throws with them, had pizza with them, and high-fived all of them,” he said with a big grin. “That right there shows you what life is about. They’re kids who, like me, weren’t privileged.”

That experience alone, he insists, has already made his week for him successful and meaningful.

“I’ve received so much encouragement from so many people this week,” Sanders said. “From players to staff and fans, everyone has been so nice. Caddies are coming up to me and telling me to go out there and do this for the caddies of the world.”

Sanders admits that he kept the news off social media for the most part, only out of concern that the attention would make him more nervous.

“If sure if everyone knew I was in the field, rather than starting at the top of the leaderboard and working their way down, they’d start at the bottom and work their way up,” he laughed. “I’ve had a lot of players come up to me and say they hope we get paired together. I’m quick to tell them they better hope it’s for only the first round.”

The lucky winners for that first round on Friday are Mario Tiziani and Gordon Burns. With legendary caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan on Sanders’ bag this week, the group begins at 9:06 a.m. off tee No. 1.

With that being where he wants to be more than anywhere else in the world, rest assured, he won’t be late.