The post Should caddies correct players in big moments? 2 loopers weigh in appeared first on Golf.

The post Should caddies correct players in big moments? 2 loopers weigh in appeared first on Golf.

We’ve all imagined having a putt to win a major championship. Perhaps the biggest key to making such a putt is being committed to your read.

So what’s a caddie to do when he disagrees with his boss’s read in that moment?

That’s exactly the question posed by GOLF Subpar co-host Drew Stoltz to two veteran loopers, Joel Stock and John Limanti, on this week’s episode with co-host Colt Knost.

Stoltz brought up the example of Xander Schauffele, needing to hole the final birdie putt on the 72nd hole at Valhalla to win last month’s PGA Championship.

“He calls you in. You’re his guy. Your player calls you and says, ‘What do you got? I love inside left,'” Stoltz poses. “You think it’s half ball outside left. What do you do?”

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Limanti quickly came up with a middle-ground answer.

“If he’s if he’s aggressive, you just remind him that it’s uphill,” Limanti, the looper for Akshay Bhatia, said, pointing out that in the specific scenario, Schauffele’s putt was uphill. “Yeah. So knowing your guy if he’s a die putter like if you think he’s going to die that.

“So I mean I would definitely say something. I would say ‘I see more.'”

Stock, who caddies for Will Zalatoris, didn’t necessarily agree.

“Affirm that confidence man,” Stock said. “If you read the situation, if he loves it and I mean if you’re nitpicking in that situation, just instill that confidence. I think that’s the best way to go.”

For more from Stock and Limanti, check out the full episode of Subpar below.

GOLF’s Subpar is presented by SAXX Underwear. Enjoy 15% off game-changing underwear with code SUBPAR here.

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The post Want to caddie? Here are 5 workout tips to get you in shape appeared first on Golf.

The post Want to caddie? Here are 5 workout tips to get you in shape appeared first on Golf.

It wasn’t long ago that people thought golfers weren’t athletes. Ditto the outdated notion that all caddies are slackers, smokers and scofflaws. Get real. The men and women in smocks today are more essential to the pro game than ever. Part stats nerd, part guru, part pack mule and therapist, a typical looper is both at the center of the action and a side player. What follows this week (and in the Jan./Feb. pages of GOLF Magazine) is a snapshot of the life — and loads of intel for your game.

ICYMI: 9 essential lessons every caddie learns, according to a pro caddie
ICYMI: 10 things a pro caddie would tell you about YOUR game
ICYMI: Joe LaCava opens up on what it takes to carry the bag for the game’s greats
ICYMI: 3 drills to improve your game, according to pro caddies
ICYMI: 3 essential travel tips from 3 well-traveled pro caddies

Schlepping a 40-pound staff bag up and down hills for eight miles a round, never mind to and from the courtesy car, requires serious conditioning. If, after 10 pages of inspiring caddie talk, you’re thinking, Hmm, looping! build your way up to three sets of 12 to 15 of these exercises.

1. Legs: Goblet squats

Doing these squats with a kettlebell or a dumbbell not only builds muscle but also the endurance for long rounds day after day.

2. Shoulders: Standing bicep curl to shoulder press

Lifting a bag time and again taxes the shoulders and biceps. This double-whammy exercise makes the movement much easier.

3. Core: Anti-rotation with cable

Hoofing that staff bag will stress your posture. This exercise mimics that stress and works the entire core.

4. Conditioning: Treadmill with weighted vest

This mimics the job to a tee. Set the treadmill to a good pace and, if desired, change the incline to simulate walking a course as hilly as Augusta National.

5. Ice baths

Take care of your body with ice baths, use a foam roller for your legs (especially those calves) and remember to stay hydrated. As for the old caddie wisdom of “Show up, keep up, shut up,” let’s add, “Pump up!”

The post Want to caddie? Here are 5 workout tips to get you in shape appeared first on Golf.

The post 3 essential travel tips from 3 well-traveled pro caddies appeared first on Golf.

The post 3 essential travel tips from 3 well-traveled pro caddies appeared first on Golf.

It wasn’t long ago that people thought golfers weren’t athletes. Ditto the outdated notion that all caddies are slackers, smokers and scofflaws. Get real. The men and women in smocks today are more essential to the pro game than ever. Part stats nerd, part guru, part pack mule and therapist, a typical looper is both at the center of the action and a side player. What follows this week (and in the Jan./Feb. pages of GOLF Magazine) is a snapshot of the life — and loads of intel for your game.

ICYMI: 9 essential lessons every caddie learns, according to a pro caddie
ICYMI: 10 things a pro caddie would tell you about YOUR game
ICYMI: Joe LaCava opens up on what it takes to carry the bag for the game’s greats
ICYMI: 3 drills to improve your game, according to pro caddies

3 essential travel tips

Whoever coined the saying “It’s the going, not the getting there, that’s good” definitely wasn’t a caddie. When you spend as much time crisscrossing the globe as these guys do, you’ll unquestionably have developed stratagems and strange techniques for getting around.

1. Make the most of your aerobes

Out here on tour, it’s not unusual for a caddie to sleep on an air mattress, but you’ve got to know how to make them comfortable. Always make sure they’re inflated to the max. There’s a good chance it’ll be deflated by the time you wake up, but you’ve got to keep it inflated as long as you can. Oh, and bringing a pillow you like is another good bet. —Nate Blasko, Hannah Green’s caddie

2. Longing for legroom? Go Southwest

I fly Southwest a lot. I know some people might not like that. But I’m pretty tall — six-five — so if I’m not flying first class it’s Southwest, , because all their seats are the same. You don’t need an upgrade to get three more inches. —Rich Mayo, Ernie Els’ caddie

3. Do not check a bag!

As a traveling caddie, I haven’t checked a bag in 23 years. I got this duffel from L.L. Bean that is everything — a soft shell without wheels, so it fits in every single plane American Airlines has. I can pack two weeks of shorts and golf shirts, a couple pairs of jeans and that’s all I need. After two weeks on the road, I’ll find a place to do laundry. But mostly, I’m never under the control of the airlines. I’m off that plane and outta there. I figure over the course of 23 years I’ve saved about two years of time not waiting in baggage claim. Saving time — that’s all I care about. —Jeff Willett, Kevin Kisner’s caddie

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The post 3 drills to improve your game, according to pro caddies appeared first on Golf.

The post 3 drills to improve your game, according to pro caddies appeared first on Golf.

It wasn’t long ago that people thought golfers weren’t athletes. Ditto the outdated notion that all caddies are slackers, smokers and scofflaws. Get real. The men and women in smocks today are more essential to the pro game than ever. Part stats nerd, part guru, part pack mule and therapist, a typical looper is both at the center of the action and a side player. What follows this week (and in the Jan./Feb. pages of GOLF Magazine) is a snapshot of the life — and loads of intel for your game.

ICYMI: 9 essential lessons every caddie learns, according to a pro caddie
ICYMI: 10 things a pro caddie would tell you about YOUR game
ICYMI: Joe LaCava opens up on what it takes to carry the bag for the game’s greats

1. Dial in your distance

We’re all going to misread putts from time to time. For me, the most important thing is speed — especially when you get outside of, say, 15 feet. A drill I use — actually, it’s more like a game — is to place an alignment stick two feet behind the hole, then set up putts from 15, 20 and 30 feet. The drill is all about getting the ball to the hole, but not so far past it that it hits the stick. Sinking a putt earns you three points. Rolling it past the hole but short of the stick earns you one point. Leaving it short of the hole loses you a point, and hitting the stick loses you two. Play to 21 with your buddies. It’ll improve your touch around the greens. —Billy Lewis, Steve Flesch’s caddie

2. Groove your takeaway

One of Cheyenne’s favorite drills focuses on her takeaway. She puts a ball directly behind her clubhead and then pushes it straight back as she begins her backswing. It’s a simple drill but one that anyone can use to make sure their takeaway is started on the correct line. —Chad Payne, Cheyenne Knight’s caddie

3. Take dead aim on the greens

It’s pretty standard on the practice putting green, but a drill Harrison started back in 2008 was to set up a three-footer, a six-footer, a nine-footer and a 12-footer, with three balls at each distance. He had to make all three putts before moving to the next distance. A miss meant going back to the three-footer. Eventually, he got to the point where he could jar three in a row from 15 feet. The following year, the drill helped him go from 120th in putting to finishing second [in putts per Greens in Regulation] behind Steve Stricker. —Marcel Lebas, Harrison Frazar’s caddie

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The post 10 things a pro caddie would tell you about YOUR game appeared first on Golf.

The post 10 things a pro caddie would tell you about YOUR game appeared first on Golf.

It wasn’t long ago that people thought golfers weren’t athletes. Ditto the outdated notion that all caddies are slackers, smokers and scofflaws. Get real. The men and women in smocks today are more essential to the pro game than ever. Part stats nerd, part guru, part pack mule and therapist, a typical looper is both at the center of the action and a side player. What follows this week (and in the Jan./Feb. pages of GOLF Magazine) is a snapshot of the life — and loads of intel for your game.

ICYMI: 9 essential lessons every caddie learns, according to a pro caddie

***

THE KNOWLEDGE: What are caddies doing between wiping down a pro’s clubs and pulling out a yardage book? Learning the game about as well as anyone.

Coaches know the sweet science of the swing perhaps better than the pros themselves. Then there are the physios and the mental-game gurus, each with their own thoughts about how to rip it between the ropes. Caddies, by virtue of their 24-7 proximity to the best players in the world, are repositories of all of this know-how. They’ve shouldered their share of pro-am rounds, too, where they’ve witnessed the ups, downs and I-don’t-know-hows of golfers like… the rest of us. Here’s what they’d tell you if they were on your bag.

1. Be a Better Bunker Player

Amateurs tend to be terrible out of the sand. They set up with the clubface square because they want to dig the ball out. They don’t understand how to use the club’s bounce, which allows them to take a full swing. So they quit [swinging] as soon as they hit it. The solution: Get in a bunker with a bunch of balls and lay the clubface open before you grip the club, not the other way around, which is what most people do — grip first, then open the face. Then take full swings all the way through to the finish position so you can see that the ball is not going to go sailing on you. —Scott Tway, Brian Harman’s caddie

2. Know How Far Your Ball Flies

Out here on Tour, we only care about how far it flies. From there, we can judge how the ball will act on the ground. But ams, they’re usually not up on these numbers. If they’re hitting driver, it may finish at 280 yards, but it flew only 215. In my off time, I caddie at TPC Sawgrass, and with all of its cross bunkers it’s a good example of why it’s crucial to know your game better. To really learn, you need to spend more than just one day on a TrackMan or in a simulator, because the body changes every day. Tour pros work so hard to make sure their bodies are in the exact same place every single day. And they succeed! Ams can’t do that. But they can work on it. —Chevy Hartzog, Ben Crane’s caddie

3. Get Serious About Green Reading

Amateurs usually only study a putt from behind the ball, and that ignores so much information. It has to start with a view from the side to see if the putt is uphill or downhill. Speed is the number-one factor. High-handicappers are terrible at reading speed, and most don’t have a clue about how to read the grain. Whenever the grass of a green appears shiny, you’re putting down-grain. The ball will roll faster. When it’s more dull in color, you’re putting into the grain. It’ll roll slower. (This affects not only putts but chips. Down-grain chips will skip, and into-the-grain chips will grab. You’ll have to fly the ball farther because it’s going to check up way quicker.) Once you’ve assessed the grain and your speed, only then should you take a look behind the hole and finish by reading the break. —Micah Fugitt, Billy Horschel’s caddie

4. Think Positivity

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Early on in my career, I was able to watch caddie legend Bruce Edwards interact with Tom Watson and Greg Norman, and Bruce was unbelievably positive. You could just see the confidence in him. If Watson missed a green, it was immediately, “Oh, we’re getting this up-and-down.” Anyone I’ve worked for has been negative at some point or another; no one is ever 100 percent positive. But delivering golf thoughts with positivity and confidence, handing someone a club or delivering a yardage with a small note of confidence — “You’re going to nail this shot” — goes a longer way than most people think. That works in all walks of life, including an amateur’s golf game. —Eric Larson, Harris English’s caddie

5. Put Away the Driver

Seriously! Just focus on hitting fairway wood about 200 yards and keeping the ball in play more often. During his first three years playing golf, my cousin, 13-year MLB pitcher Josh Garland, didn’t hit driver once. Zero drivers — period! Three-wood, five- wood — they’ve got more loft and are easier to control. It’s so much easier to play golf that way. Everyone wants to take super-long swings with the longest club in their bag, but shorter swings with a fairway wood are going to go plenty far. And, most importantly, they’ll be findable. —Brian Vranesh, K.H. Lee’s caddie

6. Learn the Aimpoint System

Use your feet to feel the slope of your putts and go from there. At this point, if you’re not using Aimpoint on the green, you’re falling behind. —Olly Brett, Rose Zhang’s caddie

7. Map Out Your Misses Ahead of Time

Whenever I analyze a course, it’s with Nick’s tendencies in mind. I put myself in his shoes, simulating where we’ll be playing from, remembering where we can miss and understanding where we can’t miss. We might not say it out loud, but we’re always aware of where a miss will put us. Amateurs don’t always think of where the miss will end up. And, sure enough, they find a hellish spot they could have avoided. Pro-am rounds teach us this all the time. Amateurs put themselves in positions where they’re bound to compound their mistakes. If a pro gets in a weird spot, they take their medicine, hit it back in play and don’t make two mistakes out of one. We’ve got this saying that is extremely true, for pros and for weekend golfers: Bogeys hurt ya, doubles kill ya. —Dave Markle, Nick Taylor’s caddie

8. Improve Your Pace of Play

Pace of play isn’t just how much time you take to swing the club when it’s your turn on the tee or in the fairway. Instead of scrolling TikTok, pick up the pace by caddying for your partner just like we would. While they size up their shot, shoot their number with a rangefinder. Fill their divot as they put their club away. Around the green, park your cart as close as possible to the next tee. Write your score down when you arrive at the tee, not while you’re standing on the previous green. And don’t wait to tell a story once you get to the tee. Tell it in transit! Pace of play is about picking up five to seven seconds everywhere. —Julien Trudeau, Mackenzie Highes’ caddie

9. Beat the Heat

But not by drinking alcohol! It can be tempting to have adult beverages when it’s hot on the course, but it won’t do much to keep you hydrated. Don’t want to pass out from the heat? Stick with a sports drink or water. —Rick Pano, Alexa Pano’s caddie (and father)

10. And Please… Club Up!

So many amateurs don’t know how far they hit it — or they’re always looking for that perfect shot. And that’s not going to happen all the time. So take an extra club, especially if there’s trouble in front of the green. I see so many shots wasted in front bunkers and penalty shots into water that fronts a green, because amateur golfers just don’t take enough club. Basically, know where the mess is — and adjust. —Jeff Johnson, Retief Goosen’s caddie

The post 10 things a pro caddie would tell you about YOUR game appeared first on Golf.

The post 9 essential lessons every caddie learns, according to a pro caddie appeared first on Golf.

The post 9 essential lessons every caddie learns, according to a pro caddie appeared first on Golf.

It wasn’t long ago that people thought golfers weren’t athletes. Ditto the outdated notion that all caddies are slackers, smokers and scofflaws. Get real. The men and women in smocks today are more essential to the pro game than ever. Part stats nerd, part guru, part pack mule and therapist, a typical looper is both at the center of the action and a side player. What follows this week (and in the Jan./Feb. 2024 pages of GOLF Magazine) is a snapshot of the life — and loads of intel for your game.

CADDYING 101

Undoubtedly, it demands a strong back. And it helps to have a way with a towel, a rake and a rowdy gallery. But few golf fans know what it really takes to do the heavy lifting on Tour. Let’s detail the caddie basics.

***

It’s 1997, and a hotshot has landed on the PGA Tour. His last name? Woods. A story we all know well. At that same time, just down the driving range, another young buck has arrived. The name is similar — Wood — but the job is different: caddie for Kevin Sutherland.

“Since we came out at the exact same time,” John Wood says, “I joke with Tiger that it’s questionable who really made the purses go up.”

We all know who wins that debate, but few people on earth know the caddie profession better than “Woody.” After 24 years on the bag — for Sutherland, Hunter Mahan and Matt Kuchar, among others — he smoothly transitioned in 2021 to an on-course reporting gig with NBC Sports. Still, for a crash course on the intricacies of the looping experience, he’s your guy.

LESSON 1: GOING INTO THE GIG, PREPARE TO BE SURPRISED

“You think you know golf,” Wood says. “You play some decent amateur tournaments, college golf, and you think you know what high-level golf is. But the difference on the PGA Tour is so drastic. The attention to detail really blew me away. I thought I knew what I was doing coming in. I didn’t have a clue. You learn that very quickly.”

LESSON 2: DON’T MISTAKE TODAY’S CADDIE JOB FOR THE OLD CADDIE JOB

“Back in the late ’90s, when I came on Tour, it was easier for a good caddie to stand out. There’s so much more involved now, so many more tools to use. The yardage books have developed to an unbelievable place. When I started out, it was very basic — front yardages, maybe a couple carry yardages. You had to do a lot of the work yourself. Go out there on Tuesday, run through numbers on the tee shots, do a lot more greens work. Caddies are more involved now in everything to do with a player’s game.”

LESSON 3: THE LIST OF THINGS A LOOPER NEEDS TO DO REALLY WELL IS LONG

“The x’s and o’s are easy. You can learn how far a guy hits his 7-iron in half a round. The important part begins with knowing their strengths and weaknesses. What is he good at? What is he not so great at? You have to read your guy. Is he down in the dumps and needs to be reminded, ‘Hey, you are not that far off.’ Other times, you need to get in his face and say, ‘You’re not going to find your best golf acting like you’re acting right now.’ He has to know you are his biggest supporter, that you want to win this golf tournament as much as he does. On course, you need all the carry numbers, all the green slopes, all the areas where you can and can’t miss. I might communicate a list of holes I think are birdie holes that day. We absolutely need to know wind direction. It completely changes the course. If you’ve got rain coming, you need to think about how much the ball will be spinning. It changes every single shot. Greens don’t break as much when there is water on them.”

LESSON 4: YOU’LL LOG PLENTY OF HOURS ALONE ON THE COURSE

“In a typical week, most caddies will walk the course without their player, which is two to three hours. Some do extra work on the greens, going out to just roll putts. That’s another hour or two. Then every night or morning there’s about an hour of homework, pregame stuff you’re doing that your player doesn’t know about. Guys bring their books back to the hotel, go over pin locations and start matching that up with wind direction. Then some weeks — like at the majors — where the line between good and bad is so fine, if you’re not playing in the morning, you’ll go out and actually watch for things you wouldn’t see on TV. If Patrick Cantlay is in contention at the Masters Saturday night, you’ll see Joe LaCava out there Sunday morning in a New York Giants football shirt watching golf.”

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LESSON 5: THERE’S ACTUALLY AN EASY PART OF THE JOB

“As long as you have a decent bag, you’re only working 25 to 28 weeks a year. Whether you have a family at home that you spend a lot of time with or you have a lot of interesting hobbies that you want to pursue, you do get a ton of time off, and that’s great.”

LESSON 6: BUT THERE’S ALSO THE TOUGHEST PART TOO

“When your player is in a slump and you are grinding to figure it out, that’s rough. Is it something I need to say? Is it something physical his coach needs to handle? If you care about it, you take it home at night. You might be having a conversation with somebody at dinner, but in your mind you’re going, Okay, what if I tried this? What if I said this out there?”

LESSON 7: CADDIES WERE THE ORIGINAL STATS NERDS

“With the advent of analytics and statistics, players hire statisticians now, but the best caddies have always had that information. It may not have been ‘You miss to the right 15.4 percent of the time,’ but you knew their tendencies way before analytics and statistics came in. You knew when they had downhill left-to-right putts, they always underread it. You knew when they were hitting into the wind and tried to flight it, they’d usually balloon it a little. Steve Williams was one of the first guys I noticed who would keep track of that stuff, and he got me doing the same thing.”

LESSON 8: SPEAKING UP ISN’T COURAGEOUS, IT’S A MUST

“My first year out, Kevin [Sutherland] had a bit of a slump. I remember sitting down in Houston and he said, ‘I need you to think like a player. I’m not going to be right every time. That’s why I brought you out here. I want to hear your opinion. Right or wrong, it’s going to be my decision ultimately. But I don’t need you to agree with everything I’m saying.’ It was like a light bulb went on for me. I can say whatever I want. I can be wrong, but I need to state my truth because that’s what a caddie is being paid for.”

LESSON 9: SOME OF IT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL. GET USED TO IT.

“You can do a perfect job as a caddie and not make a dime because your guy’s not playing well, and you can do a crap job and have a great player and make a ton of money. That’s tough — you’re doing everything you can and nothing’s working. There comes a time when you ask yourself: Is this the guy I want to be working for? Would he be better suited with somebody else? Yeah, it’s one of the strangest jobs in the world.”

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The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: What caddie-turned-broadcaster John Wood notices inside the ropes appeared first on Golf.

The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: What caddie-turned-broadcaster John Wood notices inside the ropes appeared first on Golf.

On this week’s episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon, former Tour caddie John Wood explains what he notices now more than ever as a broadcaster for NBC.

Thanks to our partners — 

Rapsodo, a mobile launch monitor you can get for the fraction of the price of others, is giving our listeners a code to try it out. Go to rapsodo.com/offcourse and use the code OFFCOURSE for $100 off your purchase. 

Cobra Golf’s new KING Forged TEC Irons are on the way and are now available for pre-order. Find out more or make your purchase today at cobragolf.com

Follow Claude to submit questions, enter giveaways and keep up with the latest Off Course updates on Instagram at @ClaudeHarmon3

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The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: What makes the caddies for the world’s top 10 players so great appeared first on Golf.

The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: What makes the caddies for the world’s top 10 players so great appeared first on Golf.

On this week’s episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon, NBC Sports’ John Wood explains the strengths of the PGA Tour’s top bagmen.

Thanks to our partners — 

Rapsodo, a mobile launch monitor you can get for the fraction of the price of others, is giving our listeners a code to try it out. Go to rapsodo.com/offcourse and use the code OFFCOURSE for $100 off your purchase. 

Cobra Golf’s new KING Forged TEC Irons are on the way and are now available for pre-order. Find out more or make your purchase today at cobragolf.com

Follow Claude to submit questions, enter giveaways and keep up with the latest Off Course updates on Instagram at @ClaudeHarmon3

The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: What makes the caddies for the world’s top 10 players so great appeared first on Golf.

The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: John Wood talks what caddies look for in a player appeared first on Golf.

The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: John Wood talks what caddies look for in a player appeared first on Golf.

On this week’s episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon, former longtime Tour caddie John Wood shares what qualities he looks for in a player.

Thanks to our partners — 

Rapsodo, a mobile launch monitor you can get for the fraction of the price of others, is giving our listeners a code to try it out. Go to rapsodo.com/offcourse and use the code OFFCOURSE for $100 off your purchase. 

Cobra Golf’s new KING Forged TEC Irons are on the way and are now available for pre-order. Find out more or make your purchase today at cobragolf.com

Follow Claude to submit questions, enter giveaways and keep up with the latest Off Course updates on Instagram at @ClaudeHarmon3

The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: John Wood talks what caddies look for in a player appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I didn’t sleep at all that night’: What it’s like caddying for a Masters champion appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I didn’t sleep at all that night’: What it’s like caddying for a Masters champion appeared first on Golf.

Ed. note: Just as Augusta National is the ultimate insiders’ club, the Masters is the ultimate insiders’ tournament. Nearly nine decades after the storied venue was founded, the Augusta Experience has remained shrouded in mystery. To unlock some of its secrets, we asked those who have been part of the experience to describe one element of what makes Augusta Augusta and the Masters the Masters. The Tkth installment of our “What It’s Like…” series (below) was contributed by veteran caddie Ted Scott, who was on the bag for both of Bubba Watson’s Masters wins.

Previous installments: The guest experience | Hitting the media lottery | Hosting the Champions Dinner | Being a Masters rookie | Sinking green-jacket dreams at 12 | Working on the Masters grounds crew | Staying in the Crow’s Nest | Hitting a ceremonial opening tee shot

***

I won’t lie. I won’t pretend that working as Bubba Watson’s caddie down the stretch of the 2012 Masters was like any other time with the bag. I was acutely aware of what was at stake, of how important it was that I do my job well.

At times, my mind drifted. How could it not? This was the Masters, the tournament I watched every year as a kid, the tournament where I felt I knew pretty much every hole by heart. And now here I was, not as a spectator but as the caddie of a guy who had a chance to win this thing. I felt like I was in a movie.

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Fast-forward to the Sunday playoff against Louis Oosthuizen. People were blown away by how Bubba was able to hook his gap wedge shot onto the green. I was not. I had been around Bubba long enough to know the guy had the shot. He has a million shots! Nothing he ever did surprised me.

Even so, when it was over, I was almost in a state of shock. I asked myself that night, and on many occasions later: Did this really happen? Did my guy win the Masters?

Well, I didn’t sleep at all that night. There must have been hundreds of calls or texts on my phone, and I felt I owed a response to everyone who had been kind enough to reach out. I don’t think I finished until 6 or 7 in the morning, maybe later.

Two years later, in 2014, when Bubba captured his second green jacket in his battle with Jordan Spieth, it was just as exciting. Yes, the pressure was a little less because he had already won one, but this was the Masters, where winning could never get old.

With reporting by Michael Arkush

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