Caddie-blaming over Club Selection… What’s the Deal?

Occasionally, a player and their caddie will get into it over club selection. What’s the deal?

In 2013, Bubba Watson yelled at his caddie for giving him the wrong club. To me, someone who had become quite the Bubba fan, it was a pretty off-putting display of character, and my fandom immediately waned.  Well, not too long ago, in June, we saw something similar from Jordan Spieth at the U.S. Open. What’s the deal?

First, before I dive into what I think about the division of responsibilities between caddie and player, let me tell you a story. It’s about how much Bubba Watson meant to me before that fateful day at the 2013 Travelers Championship.

In college, a few buddies and I played Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’14 religiously. We were gods at it, so good that the winner generally had to shoot 49 to win. To shoot 49 meant birdieing every par-3 and par-4, eagle-ing every par-5, and holing out once at some point during the round, with either a hole-in-one on a par-3, eagle on a par-4, or double-eagle on a par-5.

I think you get the point – we were pretty good.

We even racked up a handful of 47’s and 48’s during those underclassmen years, which meant you had to hole-out more than just that one time it takes to shoot 49. This brings me to my point about liking Bubba… In order to be that good, you always had to consider length off of the tee-box.

Was it possible to play with shorter players and still give yourself a chance to win? Sure, but giving up length off the tee meant par-5 eagles would be harder to come by and that you’d have longer shots into every green, reducing your chances at holing out.

For that reason, despite all of the awesome players you could choose from – a host of incredible names like Tiger, Arnold, Jack, Seve, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Gary Player, Sam Snead, and Lee Trevino, among other pros like Rory and DJ – we used Bubba Watson the most. He just absolutely smashed the ball in that game, and the upside was irrefutable when the only way to win was by going as low as you possibly could.

With the cyber trust established through countless video games rounds together, it’s no wonder I became a Bubba fan. We were one, and we had what I would consider a seamless e-caddie-player relationship. Looking back, I suppose that’s also because he couldn’t talk back…

Additionally, this was right in the thick of Bubba’s success at the Masters, which he won in both 2012 and 2014. So it was right around the time that Bubba was playing some of his best golf in the 2010s.

Then came the 2013 Travelers Championship, right in between the two Masters wins.