HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – When you’re still receiving congratulations on April 12 for something that took place April 3, you know you’re in a cool line of work.

But there was Mark Carens on Tuesday accepting hugs, high-fives, slaps on the back, and words of good cheer at this week’s PGA Tour stop, the RBC Heritage Classic.

Carens – who in another lifetime was honing his golf at Charles River CC, taking on the challenges of the New England Open, and even winning a pair of Boston Opens – had earned his third win as a PGA Tour caddie when J.J. Spaun putted lights out down the stretch at the Valero Texas Open April 3.

A line of players and caddies went out of their way on the way to the range at Harbour Town Golf Links to congratulate Carens and when Spaun made his way over, the good words were doubled up.

“It was always my dream to be out here as a player,” said Carens. “But if I can’t play out here, this is the second-best thing.”

He is passionate about his line of work, serious about how he prepares and carries himself, but Carens also has a sense of humor and is a deft storyteller. It’s a good talent to have because in a game that can provide so much heartache, you need a firm hold of levity.

When he talks about the joy of finally being on a winning bag, there is proper perspective. At one point in his caddie career, Carens was 0-for-6 in playoffs, three times with James Driscoll, once each with Morgan Hoffmann, Bubba Watson, and Si Woo Kim.

Driscoll, of course, was the 2001 U.S. Amateur runner-up, the pride of Brookline, Mass., and when he made it to the PGA Tour, he reached out to Carens to be his caddie. “But when he was a kid at Charles River,” laughs Carens, “I used to have James shag balls for me.”

Charles River CC was a brilliant place to polish his game, a place with top-to-bottom “sticks,” great players who pushed others to be great. Paul Murphy and Paul Heffernan were two of the members with whom Carens played a lot of golf and he worked for a prince of a man, Andy Froude. Carens cherishes those memories.

His decision to turn pro at 18 was based more on being smitten with the game than an understanding of his abilities. Carens will tell you how much he loved the game while growing up in Wellesley, but it was golf trips to Ireland (when he was 15) and Scotland (the next year) that sold him on this game.

“I broke 80 at Ballybunion,” said Carens, with a smile.

So that convinced him he was good enough to be a pro?

“No. But it convinced me that I was in love with the game.”

When at age 30 Carens decided to end his pro golf career, the opportunity to caddie entered the picture. The first bag he carried on the PGA Tour is still in my humble opinion the best bag these eyes have ever seen. It was an Oreos staff bag that belonged to Jason Caron and if you can think of a more delicious sponsor than Oreos, have at it.

Famously, Carens used to be the caddie you’d see out there running, but it wasn’t due to any allegiance to fitness. It was simply to keep pace with Driscoll, who was all-world at walking fast.

It’s been more than a 20-year career carrying PGA Tour bags and Carens is as enamored with the profession as he was when he carried that Oreos bag. Oh, he wonders how different things might have turned out had Driscoll won either of those PGA Tour playoffs he lost – in 2005 to Tim Petrovic in New Orleans and in 2009 to Zach Johnson.

“Could have changed his career,” said Carens. “You never know.”

He does know, however, that 13 years later the Texas Valero Open was a far better experience. Spaun, 31, started the final round with a double-bogey, then proceeded to play the next 17 holes in a bogey-free 5-under.

Not to dismiss that $1.548m prize, but both Spaun and Carens knew that the last-minute trip to Augusta National for the 86th Masters was the bigger deal. It was Spaun’s first visit, Carens’ second (he was there in 2017 with Kim) and while things could have gone more smoothly, neither player nor caddie is complaining.

They didn’t get to Augusta till late Monday and only got in eight holes. Tuesday, they played the back nine, but rained washed out the rest of the day. On Wednesday, they chipped and putted. “I’m not sure we really saw the course,” said Spaun, “but my man carried me through.”

“His man,” of course, is Carens and after he accepted congratulations for the win in the Valero, he was asked how they finished at Augusta. “Tied for 23rd,” he said, and that, too, earned congratulations, because players and caddies know Augusta National is brutally hard for everyone, especially rookies.

So, it’s been a pretty nice run for Spaun and Carens, and they’ll be looking to keep that going at this week’s RBC Heritage. Who knows, maybe the congratulations will keep flowing.