During his long career carrying the bag of PGA Tour star Jordan Spieth, caddie Michael Greller has enjoyed his share of incredible highs.
Which isn’t to say there haven’t been a few lows, too.
Though he has accumulated three major titles among 13 total PGA Tour wins in what will be a Hall of Fame career, Spieth has had a roller-coaster run. For every big victory, he’s endured a handful of painful losses.
In the latest episode of The Scoop with GOLF’s Claire Rogers, Rogers asked Greller if there was one mistake that sticks out in his time on Spieth’s bag. It didn’t take long for Greller to identify the one decision he wishes he could “re-do” — from the 2015 Open Championship at St. Andrews.
“For me, that was the hardest loss,” Greller began. “A caddie once told me the better a player you work for the more great wins you’re going to have, and the more tough losses you’re going to have. You want to work for the greats, and you’re going to have those tough losses.”
Heading into the 2015 Open at St. Andrews, Spieth already had won the Masters and the U.S. Open earlier that year. On Sunday on the Old Course, he had a chance to win his third major of the season but failed to birdie either of the final two holes to earn a spot in a playoff.
The moment that still stings Greller today, he said, came on 18 when Spieth came up short with his approach, leaving himself with an all but unmakeable birdie putt and ending his title hopes. Greller still thinks about his boss’s club selection.
“If I had a re-do,” Greller said, “he ended up hitting a gap wedge, he was left and he was being aggressive because he was trying to make birdie there on the 18th hole at St. Andrews. And he ended up coming…short and it came all the way back down to the bottom, and he had to make a 40-footer to get in the playoff. But in hindsight I wish he would have hit it to 20 feet behind it.”
Greller’s reaction in the moment spoke to how much he burned to win.
“I actually cried after that one I was so upset,” he said. “And not just that decision… it was just he was on the cusp of having a great chance to literally win the first three majors. Then he ended up getting solo-second at Whistling Straits that year at the PGA. He was not far off from winning all four majors So that’s probably one that I think about.”
You watch Greller’s full appearance on The Scoop below, or on GOLF.com’s YouTube page here.
