Pete Bauer lived in rural Mazomanie when he first saw Bandon Dunes. It was five years ago. Bauer, a driftwood sculptor, had been visiting his daughter in the state of Oregon when he decided he needed to see the coastal courses the golf world was raving about.

"I walked off the 18th hole," Bauer was recalling this week, "and I went and found a manager. I told him my background, and then I said, I'm moving out here next year.'"

Bauer, who was 60 at the time, had a rough, unformed idea that he would leave the Madison area, where he had lived most of his life, and start a new life in Bandon.

Many people, at some point in their lives, fantasize about that kind of thing. Maybe even most people. Pull up stakes, move across the country, live a dream life.

The thing is, Pete Bauer did it. He even talked his wife, the artist and musician Candace Kreitlow, into joining him.

Today, they are finishing building a house a few miles east of Bandon, Ore., a coastal city of about 3,000 people. The house is on the Coquille River, which runs into the Pacific. Pete has several area galleries that handle his driftwood sculpture pieces. Candace is working, too.

This time of year -- mid-June through mid-October -- Pete indulges another passion, the thing that brought him to Bandon in the first place.

Bauer works as one of 300 caddies at the three golf courses -- Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and the slightly inland Bandon Trails -- that together have made Bandon one of the jewels of American golf.

Bandon does not allow motorized carts. Bauer is one of only three caddies who are 65 or older -- Pete reached that milestone in April. But he 's in great shape, and when we spoke Wednesday night, he was both tired and exhilarated after "looping" two rounds -- 36 holes -- that day.

If he caddies only one round, he can play at day's end, often choosing a seven-hole route at Pacific Dunes that ends at the clubhouse. He'll hole his last putt and gaze out at the sun setting into the ocean. Even after several years, Bauer describes Bandon's natural setting with a touch of awe. The crashing waves, the fog that can roll in at any moment, the sea winds that can turn a short hole into a beast.

It's clear Bauer is under Bandon's spell, and that's saying something, because he is a man who has seen much of the world. In the summer of 1955, when he was 12 years old, Bauer traveled with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

"Sixty-three cities in 21 countries in 90 days," he once recalled.

The Globetrotters in those days essentially traveled with an entire vaudeville show and Pete's father, George Bauer, gymnastics coach at UW-Madison, was hired to do an acrobatic act. Pete became part of what is known in acrobat circles as a "Risley" act, named for a prominent early practitioner. It consists of one performer, generally an adult, juggling another performer, often a child, with his feet.

"My dad was the kicker and I was the kickee," Pete said.

They were pictured in Sports Illustrated, something Pete never knew until one of his daughters gave him a mint-condition copy of the magazine nearly a half century later.

Bauer's father was also a national badminton champion, and Pete is a natural athlete, having taught kinesiology at UW and worked as a golf instructor. We first met a decade or so ago at a Father's Day golf tournament held by our mutual friend, Mark Parish, on a five-hole course he had built in the back yard of his home outside Mazomanie. Pete won the tournament.

When Bauer first left for Bandon in spring 2004, the plan was for Candace to quickly sell their Mazo home and join him. The home took a while to sell, however, and Pete's debut at Bandon was also not auspicious. He arrived in Bandon on Memorial Day, felt sick, and wound up in the hospital diagnosed with pneumonia and bronchitis.

Bauer rested for a couple of weeks. When he felt strong enough, he started working at Bandon, not as a caddy but as a ranger, monitoring the pace of play. Eventually he felt up to caddying, and he loved it, as he knew he would. Golfers visit Bandon from all over the world and many have stories to tell that are more interesting than their golf games.

"I was born to caddy," Bauer said.

This year, with their Mazomanie house sold and Candace in Bandon overseeing the completion of their new home, the dream is just about fully realized. Of course, there's always a new challenge. Bandon is set to open a fourth golf course sometime soon.

"That," Pete Bauer said, "will make 72 greens that I have to read."

I don't know about you, but I'm not going to feel sorry for him.