Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe) works as a caddie at the exclusive Bushwood Country Club to earn enough money to go to college. Danny caddies for Ty Webb (Chevy Chase), a mischievous but avid golfer and the son of one of Bushwood's co-founders. Danny tries to gain favor with Judge Elihu Smails (Ted Knight), the country club's arrogant co-founder and director of the caddie scholarship program, by caddying for him. Meanwhile, Carl Spackler (Bill Murray), a mentally unstable groundskeeper who lives in the maintenance building, is sent by his Scottish supervisor Sandy McFiddish (Thomas A. Carlin) to hunt a gopher that is damaging the course. He attempts to kill it with a rifle and high-pressure hose but fails.