Jason McDede is a man who wears a lot of different hats, both personally and professionally.
He caddies for world No. 1 Nelly Korda, acting as a trusted confidante and best friend to the two-time major champion while they compete together on the LPGA Tour, constantly encouraging the 25-year-old on the golf course and in all aspects of her life off it.
He is a husband to Tour winner Caroline Masson, supporting his wife as she navigates the challenges of professional golf life and cheering her on in her successes while also being her partner in life and safe place to land.
He is also a friend, a son and a brother, well-loved by his family members and colleagues on the LPGA Tour and always quick with a kind word.
But his favorite role by far is being a father to his son Benton David McDede.
Jason and Caroline announced they were expecting their first child via Instagram on November 15, 2022, and Benton arrived in April of the next year. The couple named their son for Bentonville, Ark., a city that annually hosts the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, a tournament to which the McDede family will always be inextricably linked.
“(Bentonville is) where Caroline found out she was pregnant,” Jason explained. “We bought a dog from Bentonville, Ark., as well, nine years ago before that. It's a special place for us. Our two biggest things in our life, our dog and our son, we found in Bentonville, Ark.”
Jason was actually caddying for Nelly at the JM Eagle LA Championship when Caroline started feeling strange a few weeks before her scheduled C-section, one that she had planned around the golf calendar in complete understanding of Jason’s schedule with Korda. After heading to the hospital near the couple’s home in Central Florida to get checked out and being told that she’d be fine, to go home and rest, Caroline and Jason decided that he should stay in Los Angeles and finish out the next couple of loops he had scheduled with Nelly.
But that plan quickly changed when Caroline felt worse later that same night and headed back to the hospital. Worried about his wife and desperate to get home, Jason dropped everything and raced to the airport in the wee hours of the morning on the West Coast. And after returning his rental car at LAX, he ultimately got the surprise of a lifetime.
“I hopped in my car at three o'clock in the morning. I dropped the car off, waited for the shuttle bus, and all of a sudden, here are pictures of Benton from my mom already born,” remembered Jason. “The C-section already had happened and in the blink of an eye, he was in the world. I'll never forget, I booked a flight direct back to Orlando, and I had just sent Nelly a picture of Benton, obviously born. This was on the plane, and she just wrote me back, ‘Congratulations! I hope you're on a plane, right?’
“It’s a story that he probably won't understand until he's older. There are so many things to be thankful for in that situation because when you're 4000 miles away and they tell you that you're going to be a dad, it's a surreal feeling.”
Now, Benton is nearly 14 months old and has already been on more cross-country and international trips than some adults will ever take in their lives. At first, he was going from state to state and country to country with his mother to watch his father work. But now, Benton also gets to cheer on Caroline from the LPGA’s Child Development Center as she made her return to competitive golf in April, and child care has been a game-changing resource for the couple as they’ve learned to manage their new normal as a family of three.
“I think that's another thing that doesn't get shed enough light on is how important (the child care workers) are to the Tour,” Jason said. “These kids, they're taking care of them like it’s their own. When all these parents drop their kids off at daycare, it's almost like dropping them off with a family member. Huge shout out to Bardine (May) and Joy (Dods) and Sarah (Hurd). We couldn't do it without them.”
Benton attended the Solheim Cup in Spain and The Amundi Evian Championship in France in 2023, often getting his stroller stopped by his mother’s LPGA Tour counterparts as they cooed over just how cute and smiley he was in his first few months of life. But this season, Benton has witnessed Nelly and Jason capture an impressive and historic six wins on the LPGA Tour, five of which came consecutively from January to April and the most notable of which was The Chevron Championship.
And while the entire run with Korda has been special and while there’s no telling what else could happen to the player-caddie duo in the coming months, that major victory in The Woodlands, Texas is the one win that stands out the most for Jason and is a moment he’s looking forward to telling his son about one day when he’s older.
“I think jumping in the lake and seeing him watch us jump in a lake was – he's probably thinking, ‘What are they doing?’” Jason said. “But having that moment with him and being able to win another major in front of him and such a special one on the LPGA Tour would be the one that sticks out.
“For me, anytime you get to share success in front of your loved ones, I think it means a little bit more because I think that's why you do it. That’s why you work so hard, and you sacrifice so much is because you do it for your family. So being able to have Ben and Caro watch, it is so cool.”
But the McDedes still have their challenges, which are to be expected when you’re traveling globally and playing a professional sport with a baby in tow. Parenthood often redefines how relationships work, and for Jason and Caroline, Benton has definitely shifted both of their mindsets about what is important in life. He has provided the couple with a new perspective, both on and off the golf course, and Jason has enjoyed getting to watch his wife in her new role as Benton’s mother.
“It's a growing experience. I think we've both had to sacrifice a little bit of our normal, selfish lives,” said Jason. “Golf is a selfish sport. You beat to your own drum a little bit, and becoming a parent, you have to lose a little bit of that. We both know that Benton is the number one priority now in our lives, and we've tried to balance that. It's not always perfect.
“This was always a dream for me to have a child and Caro as well. To be a parent with Caro has been amazing. She's so driven to be a great mom, and she's driven to do the best for him, whether it's the food he eats or the sheets he sleeps on. We’ve had disagreements like all people, but I think it's been really fun to see a new chapter of Caro. It makes me definitely look at her and respect her so much more for how detailed she is when it comes to Benton.”
Being a dad has wildly exceeded Jason’s expectations, and as his son has grown, life has gotten even more fun as time has progressed. Winning events and being a part of history has certainly been an incredible experience for Jason over the years, but now, nothing beats being a husband and a father. “Sometimes you pinch yourself because sometimes you don’t feel like it’s real,” said Jason. “The last couple of months have been really fun, seeing him grow and seeing him mature as a person. His personality is there.”
And no matter what he achieves on the golf course as a caddie, no matter what victory or trophy or record-breaking triumph he gets to be a part of, nothing will ever stack up to his new greatest accomplishment, being Benton David McDede’s dad, the best victory of all.
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