Kessler Karain didn’t take much time to ponder the offer.

Patrick Reed and his wife, Kessler’s sister, needed a new caddie since Justine was expecting the couple’s first child in the spring of 2014.

“Patrick gave me a call and asked me what I thought,” Karain said. “I said if you’re serious I can quit my job in the next five minutes.”

Karain gave up his job in the medical device field and began a crash course to learn how to caddie.

“I was on the golf course with him for about a month,” he said. “Spending that month out here was giving me an idea on what to expect. Yardages, what he likes, that helped out.”

His first time carrying the bag came at the Tournament of Champions event in Hawaii, on the notoriously hilly Kapalua course. Two weeks later, they were in the California desert for the Humana event.

“It was perfect timing and we go to Humana and he shoots 63, 63, 63,” Karain said. “That was my second week and I was like, man, I don’t know what’s so hard about this. When he can’t miss a putt it does make it pretty easy.

“But I also look at that kind of like it was meant for me to be there. He was mostly playing on his instincts throughout that whole week, and I was pretty much there for emotional support.”

Karain has been on the bag for five of Reed’s six career victories, including last year’s Masters. He played golf in high school, and now he is comfortable in the role and knows his brother-in-law well enough that he can help make decisions around the course.

“I can read how he feels about certain clubs pretty well,” he said. “The whole process from getting yardage to which club to use to the shot shape. Just the whole discussing of that. What he’s confident with, what he’s not confident with. I guess a big part of the job is knowing what to say, what not to say.”

Karain has now caddied in the Masters five times, but he said it’s still a learning process.

“I don’t think I’ll ever know it well enough,” he said. “Every year you see something new and a little crazy as far as just watching people have to putt.”

Reed held a three-shot lead going into the final round last year, but a bogey on the first hole and a par on the second wasn’t the start he wanted. Karain helped him figure out the distance at No. 3 that paid off with a confidence-building birdie.

“The wind’s kind of funky there, and we weren’t 100 percent where it was, so we had time so I could run up and check it out,” he said. “I figured it out, and once I got back, he basically pulled the trigger as quick as he could. He hit it close there, and got back into it.”

Reed held on for a one-shot victory, and Karain celebrated in the caddie shack. Even as a relative newcomer to looping, he doesn’t take the chance to caddie in the Masters for granted.

“Some guys caddy their entire career and never get to put on the jumpsuit,” he said. “There’s a mirror (in the caddie shack), and you look in it and think, how many times does this number win the tournament? Is this going to be my number that wins the tournament?”

Karain’s caddie number was 83 last year, and he has it on display along with the flag from the 18th hole. Now, he has an even loftier goal. The defending champion’s caddie wears No. 1, and only three golfers have successfully defended their Masters win.

“I’d love to be number four to win with No. 1,” Karain said.