His player snapped SIX of his clubs: What happens during a meltdown

John Rathouz, caddying at a tournament some years back, and his man stood in the middle of the fairway. Finally. Over the previous 17 holes, his pro was left and right, and way down the leaderboard. 

Rathouz then heard a crack. Six of them.  

“A player of mine once broke six clubs in the fairway waiting to hit his second shot,” the caddie of 16 years told GOLF.com. “And it wasn’t crazy, either. It was kind of quiet.”

“He actually hit a perfect drive,” he continued. “Yeah, he was frustrated with his game. He knew he was going to miss the Saturday cut, and he had had enough. All these players reach boiling points out there, and some of them handle it better than others. It’s certainly part of being a touring pro is being able to handle the frustration and anger sometimes that comes with playing.”

On Friday, Erik van Rooyen handled it on a tee marker. During the second round of the PGA Championship, he went bogey, double, bogey at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, then proceeded to drop his tee shot on the beastly 223-yard, par-3 17th into the water right of the green. Van Rooyen would immediately take two more swings — one at the left tee marker from one direction, and one at that tee marker from another direction, the second one sending the head of the club flying off.  

Then van Rooyen had to finish the hole. And the 18th. And get his clubs from the caddie who had been walking side-by-side with him for the previous 34 holes. While cameras and fans watched van Rooyen, Alex Gaugert stood off to the side. His physical load became lighter. He had lost an iron. But the mental one just got heavier. His player had lost it. 

“As a caddie, if that was my player, we all understand how difficult it is what they’re doing out there — playing one of the hardest golf courses in the world under major championship pressure — and you kind of give them the benefit of the doubt in those situations,” Rathouz said. “I would have been embarrassed to be around him, and I would have thought that he would be embarrassed, but I also see that his reaction, while he’s still out on the golf course, is not to kind of like stop and apologize to everyone. Those guys kind of continue on in their little world, you sign your scorecard at the end, you putt out on 18, and they kind of let their guard down and become more normal people and apologize maybe.”

What about on the next shot? For van Rooyen and Gaugert, that came on a drop 126 yards from the hole, where he would go on to make a triple-bogey 6. 

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“The only thing you can do is go through the routine like always,” Rathouz said. “These guys are creatures of habit, and players and caddies, you do the same thing for every shot. So just get back into your routine is the best thing. I think sometimes asking a player a question is a helpful thing and that sometimes gets his mind off of whatever thoughts are going through his head. 

“You ask him a question, and all of a sudden, you got a little rapport or he’s able to kind of get back on track, in least a good frame of mind to get into the next shot. Like whether it’s, hey, where do you want to land the ball, or what do you got the wind doing here? It’s something you don’t normally ask him, but it’s a way to kind of jar him back into the process.”

Then comes the next hole. And the next tournament. As of Friday night, van Rooyen is the first alternate for next week’s Charles Schwab Challenge. Can a caddie ever make light of the meltdown? 

“Maybe later in the round, if you’re out of the golf tournament, or you’re going to miss the cut, you can joke about it out on the golf course still,” Rathouz said. “Otherwise, it’s going to be something that it’s probably the next week or that night at dinner if you’re out to dinner together. But it’s kind of got to read the situation and see that he’s open to that. I mean, if you do it the wrong way, and you want to keep your job, it can be something that you lose your job over honestly. But at the time, if that’s how it was going to go down, you’re probably going to lose your job anyways. 

“You have to be careful with it. It’s something that you certainly can joke about at some point.”

Which Rathouz was willing to do on Saturday for another memorable blow-up. 

“I’ve had a player throw a putter into the bushes after walking off the 4th green at the Players Championship,” Rathouz said. “He threw it into the bushes behind the tee box on 5. That’s a weird one, too, where you’re like, should I go get that? Should I leave it? I think some caddies would have left it. I went and got it. It’s a fine line there, too, where I want to keep my job, but at the same time is this guy demeaning me? So that’s tricky too. Hey, I understand he’s frustrated, whatever. 

“But the breaking six clubs in one fairway — I wish I would have broke one myself.” 

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