The post He’s seen every Presidents Cup, and he thinks big changes are coming appeared first on Golf.

The post He’s seen every Presidents Cup, and he thinks big changes are coming appeared first on Golf.

MONTREAL — Most changes in golf over the last three decades can be measured in money.

This week, though, they can be measured in fabric.

“When I caddied in 1994, obviously I was there for the entire week,” Bones Mackay says. “They gave us three golf shirts to get us through the seven days and put us up in a ratty motel on the outskirts of town.”

Mackay pauses for a beat. A grin is poking between his deeply tanned skin and white teeth. His voice trails off.

“This week, the caddies are staying in the same hotel as players, riding to and from the course with players, have lockers next to players,” Mackay says. “It speaks to how much has changed — not only in golf but also at this event.”

Indeed, the Presidents Cup is changing, and nobody knows it better than Mackay. In 2024, he will continue arguably the event’s most impressive ironman streak: he has worked … all of them. Starting in 1994 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, where he was caddie for a young up-and-comer on the U.S. side named Phil Mickelson … and continuing all the way through 2024 at Royal Montreal, where he is an on-course reporter in his second tour of duty for NBC. The weight of the last 30 years in pro golf hangs over Mackay like one of those early ’90s golf shirts hangs over the elbows, but time has conferred a certain wisdom. In ’24 Mackay knows things he didn’t in ’94, and this week, that means something surprising: The Presidents Cup, he says, it getting real.

“Caddying in the last one there in Charlotte, you had amazing crowds and amazing weather,” Mackay says. “There was a moment there on Sunday where I wasn’t so sure the U.S. was going to win. It got pretty close there. I just remember thinking to myself, certainly this isn’t the Ryder Cup, but the President’s Cup has grown leaps and bounds.”

As a voice paid to care about the Presidents Cup, there are admittedly more unbiased sources of Presidents Cup optimism in the golf world. But if you’ve ever listened to Mackay on television, you know he has been gifted with a kind of golf synesthesia — his brain works in a way that sees the same golf scenes as the rest of us but experiences them differently. Usually, that looks like the scene at the 2019 Presidents Cup, when Mackay witnessed Haotong Li punch out from the trees on the third hole at Royal Melbourne. To the rest of us, it looked like a typical punch-out, but Mackay knew something was wrong.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘They’re gonna make him play this again,'” Mackay says, just as he did on the NBC broadcast then.

Mackay was right. Li had played out of order, and the Internationals were forced to replay their shot, changing the complexion of their match.

In hindsight, he says now, that was just one of a few moments in the years that have followed that has changed the way the Cup looks — and changed his perception of the event’s future.

“There are times when this event has grown chippy,” Mackay said. “It’s fun to see that up close.”

These, he admits, are not the sweeping evidence of change in the Presidents Cup that most fans are seeking. And it is true that the existence of a serious competition is dependent upon more level sparring between the sides, which has seen only one International victory ever. But Mackay’s point isn’t that the change is here, it’s that the change is coming.

After all, big changes are usually the product of many small changes before them. Things like new hotels, or gear drops so big that Mackenzie Hughes was losing clothing within them.

“It’s probably tenfold of what I thought was going to be coming our way,” he said. “My hotel room is just overflowing with stuff. It’s hard to find stuff. The first day I couldn’t find my belt. I was beltless.”

Perhaps what happens between the ropes this week will lend some credence to Mackay’s claims. But even if not, Bones won’t have to look far to see what has changed in this event over the last 30 years.

It’s right there in the wardrobe.

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The post A Phil Mickelson slow play story — and Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay’s 2 sentences to official appeared first on Golf.

The post A Phil Mickelson slow play story — and Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay’s 2 sentences to official appeared first on Golf.

Jim “Bones” Mackay, eight years later, is asked for a memory — a “dominant thing” — of the back-and-forth between his man, Phil Mickelson, and Henrik Stenson during the 2016 Open Championship’s final round, and he obliges. Only he has more than one memory. More than one dominant thing. 

The golf quality, Mackay said, “was pretty much mind-blowing.”

The players, he said, were “incredible.”

And those Royal Troon crowds. 

“The spectators were just — just the buzz around the place, the electric atmosphere was maybe something I never saw again,” he said. “Maybe at a couple of Ryder Cups.

“But it was just electric out there.”

Though seemingly not to everyone, and Mackay has “a little story” about that, too. 

He was talking last week on a call previewing NBC’s coverage of this week’s Open, where Mackay will work as an on-course analyst, eight years since the last Open at Troon. Then, Mackay caddied for Mickelson in the major, and Sunday’s final round was golf theater. 

Three days earlier, during the first round, Mickelson shot a 63, tying him for what was then the lowest round in a major. He led after the second round, by one shot, over Stenson. During Saturday’s third round, in the final pairing, Mickelson and Stenson dueled, with Stenson firing a 68 and Mickelson a 70, and they went at it in the final pairing again during Sunday’s final round.  

There, Stenson shot a 63 to win, and Mickelson shot a 65. They combined for 14 birdies and an eagle. The next closest player to Mickelson after four rounds was a whopping 11 shots back. 

“It was really one of the fun events,” Mickelson said last week during a LIV Golf press conference. “Only time I can remember in my career where I played my absolute best golf and it wasn’t enough to win.

“As I look back, I’ve always tried to put it in my hands. Like if I play my game, if I play well, it will be good enough, and it always has been until that week when I played my best and it wasn’t enough. But yet, I still really enjoyed that week. I look back on it fondly even though I didn’t win. I loved the 36 holes over the weekend that we played, competed against head-to-head. We really had a great time because that’s what it’s about. It’s not about the trophy as much as it is the process. That’s what I remember, and my life experiences, you know, being in the middle of it. That’s why we work so hard.”

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Only, according to Mackay, an official had wanted Mickelson and Stenson to pick things up during the final round. 

It was part of his “little story” that he shared on the call — which included a two-sentence response to the official. 

“I think on the 13th tee on Sunday, and Phil had just made a 25- or 30-footer for par on 12, and I was the last guy off the tee,” Mackay said. “I think I had grabbed some water, and an R&A official came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and said, would you mind telling both the players that we’re concerned about their position on the golf course and they need to hurry up a little bit.

“I said, sir, this is so amazing what’s going on out here right now, I’m not saying a word to anybody about anything. I just want to watch this play out.

“It was really special and one of those handful of times, as I get a little older, that I think back about how absolutely privileged I was to be there in person and to watch it because it was just golf at its absolute highest level.”

Editor’s note: In a story published last month by GOLF.com, Mackay also shared memories of the 1999 U.S. Open, and that story can be read by clicking here. 

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The post After split with Justin Thomas, Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay is back to broadcasting full-time appeared first on Golf.

The post After split with Justin Thomas, Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay is back to broadcasting full-time appeared first on Golf.

Longtime Tour caddie and popular broadcaster Jim “Bones” Mackay is heading back to the small screen for full-time broadcast work for NBC/Golf Channel, network president Sam Flood confirmed in a media conference call.

While Mackay was previously announced as part of next week’s U.S. Open broadcast team in Pinehurst, his full-time return is welcome news for golf fans, who have enjoyed his insights since his broadcast debut at the 2015 RSM Classic, alongside fellow caddie John Wood.

Prior to working for NBC, Mackay made a name for himself as one of the best caddies on Tour, spending 25 years on the bag for Phil Mickelson before the duo’s split in 2017. Mickelson won 41 PGA Tour tournaments, including five major championships, with Mackay.

Almost immediately after splitting with Mickelson, Mackay was hired as a full-time on-course reporter for NBC and Golf Channel. He worked as a fill-in caddie for Justin Thomas on two occasions before Thomas hired him as a full-time bagman in 2021.

“I love to caddie and I loved my role with NBC/Golf Channel, but it’s Justin Thomas,” Mackay told Golf Channel at the time.

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Mackay’s partnership with Thomas was highlighted by Thomas’ victory at the PGA Championship in 2022 — the pair’s only win together.

Mackay kept a toe in the broadcast water throughout his tenure with Thomas, working tournaments like the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. In February, at the Mexico Open at Vidanta, Mackay became the first active caddie ever to serve as a lead analyst.

In April, Thomas and Mackay parted ways, and it wasn’t long before TV came calling once more. Does this mean Mackay, now 59, is hanging up his bib for good?

“Television is my No. 1 priority and I’ll do what I did before — if someone is sick or between caddies and needs a guy for a week and it’s not an NBC event, then I’d be happy to help out,” Mackay told Golfweek’s Adam Schupak. “But beyond that I will be doing TV primarily as far as what I do for a living.”

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The post Bones Mackay’s caddie wisdom put on full display with Justin Thomas in ugly spot appeared first on Golf.

Justin Thomas didn’t have much to work with, though he had Jim “Bones” Mackay. 

Their player-caddie relationship has been fruitful, since teaming up at the end of 2021. Twelve top 10s. A victory at last year’s PGA Championship. It was then when Mackay’s looper savvy shined maybe its brightest. 

To set the scene, ahead of his win, Thomas had signed for a third-round 74 at Southern Hills, and he’d start the fourth seven shots out of the lead. He wasn’t exactly out of it; he wasn’t exactly in it. But he was frustrated fully, so Team Thomas went to the range. 

And Mackay and Thomas had, what we can now call, “The Talk.” Thomas said it won him the tournament. Mackay described it all this way:

“Justin, you know, if he’s frustrated that he shot a few over on Saturday, you know, for as well as he played, it certainly wasn’t a score you want on moving day at a major,” Mackay told the Caddie Network. “But you know, any caddie would have done what I did, which is say, hey, man, the great thing is, you’re playing well. You know, typically the way you played today would have been 70, 71, whatever, but, you know, it adds up to 74, and there you go. But the great thing is, when you drive out of here, you know you’re playing well and your game is trending in the right direction; there’s nothing to sit out here and fix. 

“Again, it’s easy for me to say it, because, again, I’m carrying the bag and getting the dirt out of the grooves and telling him he’s got 178 and all that stuff, but in those moments, when those guys have so much pressure on yourself, hopefully we’re in a position to say something that will hopefully make life a little easier for those guys.”

That’s a nice segue to Friday. 

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What Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay told Justin Thomas in inspirational PGA range ‘talk’

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Thomas was up against it again. Mackay and Thomas talked again. On the 467-yard, par-4 8th at Harbour Town Golf Links, during the second round of the RBC Heritage, Thomas had hit his tee shot left, which was not a sublime place to be on the dogleg left. Thomas was about 50 yards behind a batch of trees, and the green was about 100 yards past that. His ball had also attracted mud on its right side. 

Thomas’ thought was to hook it around the trees, but the concern was where — mud on one side of the ball tends to send it in the other direction, so in this case, more left, where water also was. At this point, Mackay reassured his man, then went genius level. 

This conversation was picked up by Golf Channel mics:

“But I can’t … You know,” Thomas said. 

“No, I hear you,” Mackay said. “I almost, I mean, it’s easier said than done, but I feel like if we hook it enough to, you know, in a sense, land by the right edge of the green, that would give us some room …” 

“Yeah, I agree,” Thomas said. 

“I know it’s easier said than done,” Mackay said. 

“I’m just trying to figure out how much this is going to — because it seems like it already will hook because of the mud, but if I try to turn it all, I just don’t want it to like, really go,” Thomas said. “I feel like I got to — but I can’t just solely rely on the mud to turn it. I’m going to give it a little more room and just turn it a little bit and hopefully the mud will …” 

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There was more. There were storms in the area. 

So … 

“Now hold on, if they blow the horn here, we’ll get to clean our ball, right,” Mackay said. “You want to ask how close the storm is?”

“I mean, have you heard anything about this storm?” Thomas said.

“Guys, you got anything for us?” Mackay said to a couple folks standing nearby. “Anything? Anything? All right.”

Think about that. Mackay had covered every option, even the heavens and a weather horn. 

“Wow, that’s some good caddying right there,” analyst Curt Byrum said on the broadcast. 

“That’s clever,” analyst Frank Nobilo said. “Because if they do blow the horn and there’s a threat that there is some weather, you would get to mark the ball and then clean it.”

In the end, Thomas played a hook well out to the right, and his ball settled in the first cut of right rough, about 25 yards away from the hole and pin high. From there, Thomas nearly pitched in, he made the comebacker for a par four, and he started Saturday’s third round seven shots back of leader Jimmy Walker. 

“Man, that was a fascinating conversation,” announcer Steve Sands said on the broadcast. 

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The post Why Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay says this caddie is the most enjoyable person he’s ever played with appeared first on Golf.

The post Why Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay says this caddie is the most enjoyable person he’s ever played with appeared first on Golf.

Jim “Bones” Mackay is one of the most successful caddies in the world of professional golf.

He started out by looping for the likes of Larry Mize, Scott Simpson and Curtis Strange before embarking on a 25-year stint with Phil Mickelson. When Mackay and Mickelson parted ways in 2017, Mackay started working as an on-course reporter for NBC/Golf Channel until he returned to caddying in 2021 to work with Justin Thomas.

When you’ve been around the Tour for as long as Mackay has, you end up knowing just about everyone in the pro golf orbit pretty well, especially the other caddies.

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What Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay told Justin Thomas in inspirational PGA range ‘talk’

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On this week’s episode of Subpar, Mackay explained to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz why Jordan Spieth’s longtime looper, Michael Greller, is the best golf buddy you could ask for.

“To anybody out there, if you’ve got a member-guest coming up, send a private jet for Michael Greller,” Mackay said. “Because A., he will be the most amazing partner you’ll ever have. He will drink and smoke cigars with you, and he will bring it on the golf course.

“We found out about Greller — you know, my joke about Greller is that he can’t hit a 7-iron over a car because he hits it so low — but we realized when we went on this trip in the U.K., where he was playing as like a 6 or a 7 [handicap] and I was playing at like a 4, that he hits it so hard and so low, he’s hitting it 420 off the tee over there, and he was virtually unbeatable. So we had so much fun, and we’re destroying guys we’re playing against at Muirfield and St. Andrews, and we had a blast.”

“If your course is soft, don’t call him,” Knost joked.

“He’s the most enjoyable person to play golf with I’ve ever played golf with in my life,” Mackay said. “And that includes some touring pros and this and that. [Joe] La Cava’s the same way, but Greller is next-level fun to play golf with.”

For more from Mackay, including how he got his famous nickname, and a fun story from his first day looping for Justin Thomas, check out the full interview below.

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The post ‘You could just tell:’ How Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay landed on Phil Mickelson’s bag appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘You could just tell:’ How Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay landed on Phil Mickelson’s bag appeared first on Golf.

There’s an old adage among PGA Tour caddies: You never want to be a great player’s first looper.

Jim “Bones” Mackay told GOLF’s Subpar co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stolz on this week’s episode that Tour caddies have noted a trend of great players quickly replacing their loopers after starting their Tour careers. Take, for example, Tiger Woods splitting from Mike “Fluff” Cowan after less than three years.

That’s why Mackay had low expectations for the pairing with his famous most boss: Phil Mickelson.

“The reality of that job and that situation is that he’s going to now come out on the Tour, he’s going to play, there’s 150 other caddies out there,” Mackay said in the clip from the podcast you can watch above. “He’s going to run into some guy who thinks he’s the greatest guy ever who’s very, very capable and that’s who he’s going to want to have caddie for him.

“So I didn’t have any illusions when I went to work for him. I thought this might last a year or so.”

The partnership, which would eventually last 25 years and become recognized as one of the most famous player-caddie duos in golf, started off exactly how you would have expected: Bones stopping to sit and watch a random, left-handed college player hitting balls on the range one evening as he was visiting his favorite record store in Tempe, Arizona.

“Before I took a right to go to the record store, that’s where the range was, the private range for the ASU golf teams. And this one evening there was a left-hander hitting balls,” Mackay recalled of the first time he met Mickelson. “So I went into the store, bought my CDs, drove back the guy was still hitting balls. It was Phil, and I got within 20 or 30 feet of him and said, ‘Do you mind if I watch you hit a few?’

“He said, ‘Not really. Help yourself.’ I sat on a bench, watched him hit balls for 10 minutes and just got in my car and left.”

Even from that short sample size, Mackay, who was then looping for Scott Simpson and Curtis Strange, knew he had just seen something special.

“You could just tell,” Mackay said. “You could just look at the way his hands went on the club, you know, in terms of like how [Seve] Ballesteros did — that he looks like he was born with a club in his hand and the speed and, the wedges and whatnot. The guy was a world beater when, at this point, he was 20, 21.”

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How did Jim 'Bones' Mackay get his famous nickname? Enter Fred Couples

By: Zephyr Melton

Mackay never seriously considered taking on the college star’s bag when he turned professional, until then-Arizona State coach Steve Loy approached Mackay at the 1992 Tucson Open about finding a caddie for Mickelson. By that point, Mickelson had already won on the PGA Tour in 1991 while still an amateur. Mackay said he had to leave the conversation abruptly when Strange emerged from the locker room and headed out to the range, meaning Mackay had to go with him.

Mackay didn’t get any contact information for Loy, so he sent a note with his contact information to the Arizona State athletic department apologizing for the abrupt end to the conversation and offering his help to find Mickelson a caddie.

Mackay doesn’t remember if Mickelson ever told him he actually saw the note, but Lefty offered him the job during a practice round later that year at the Players Championship. Mackay was caddying for Simpson, who was playing with the still amateur Mickelson and Gary McCord (because why not?) that day.

“It’s Simpson, McCord and Phil on the 10th tee at the Players and we’re waiting for the fairway to clear and this conversation happens between Phil and I,” Mackay recalled. “I said, ‘Can I think about it while we’re out here for a couple of hours?’ You know, because it completely caught me off guard.

“And, of course, every atom in your body is screaming: You got to do this.”

It was an easy yes for Mackay, and when Mickelson turned pro that June at the U.S. Open, Bones was on the bag. The partnership resulted in 42 PGA Tour wins and five major titles.

Check out below to listen to the entire episode as Mackay discusses his nickname, caddying for Justin Thomas and more.

The post ‘You could just tell:’ How Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay landed on Phil Mickelson’s bag appeared first on Golf.

The post How did Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay get his famous nickname? Enter Fred Couples appeared first on Golf.

The post How did Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay get his famous nickname? Enter Fred Couples appeared first on Golf.

If you’re a golf fan, then it’s likely that you know Jim Mackay. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, then perhaps you’d recognize him by his famous nickname: Bones.

Now that you can put a face to a name, surely you know his credentials. Longtime caddie for Phil Mickelson. Part-time on-course broadcaster. Current looper for Justin Thomas. If there were a Mount Rushmore for caddies, Bones’ face would be on it.

But while you might be familiar with one of the most decorated caddies in the game, you likely don’t know the origin of his nickname. The short answer is this: Fred Couples called him Bones early on in his career, and the name has stuck ever since. The long answer is a little more complicated, and Bones covered it in a recent appearance on GOLF’s Subpar.

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Jim "Bones" Mackay has a hilarious story about when he started caddying for Justin Thomas

By: Josh Berhow

“Three months into caddying with Larry Mize, we’re at a tournament in Paris,” Bones said. “Nobody knows your name. Nobody really cares to know your name because they’re sure at this point this new skinny kid from Georgia is not gonna last.”

Bones explained that all the players and their wives would go to dinner each night on the road. Four or five nights into this trip, the crew went out to a restaurant that was buffet style, much to Couples’ delight. He dashed through the buffet as quickly as he could and sat down at the far end of the room ready to feast.

There was just one problem — he didn’t have any silverware. Unbeknownst to him, the utensils were located at the opposite end of the room.

“There is no chance he’s walking those 26 feet,” Bones recalled of Couples. “He sees a tall, skinny guy very close to said silverware and just starts screaming out these random names — none of which are mine. I’m so skinny, he yells out ‘Bones!’ I turn around, bring him a knife and fork and he calls me Bones the rest of the trip.

“I was thrilled given some of the other [caddie] nicknames floating around,” Mackay said.

Check out below to listen to the entire episode as Bones discusses how he met Phil Mickelson, caddying for Justin Thomas and more.

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