Caddie-blaming over Club Selection… What’s the Deal?
In short, what happened was this: Bubba went into Sunday having shot 63-67-70 through his first three days. He started his final round three strokes ahead of the field, and things for most of the day looked good.
But then, upon reaching the par-three 16th, with just a few holes standing between him and his fifth professional victory, he put the ball short in the water and ended up triple-bogeying the hole. With that came my first time ever seeing a player yell at their caddie live on television, as Bubba very publicly shamed his caddie, Ted Scott, for giving him the wrong club.
Not only did Bubba’s reaction annoy me, but I was pretty disgusted too. Overall, that kind of reaction didn’t make sense to me. You’re the player, you’re in control, and I find it extremely weird that you wouldn’t be paying intimate attention to your own club selection and every facet of the shot at hand.
Then to top it off, his post-round ‘apologies’ and explanations were lame.
Picked the wrong club on the 16th hole. But it was still a great week. Thanks to the fans & Travelers for another great tourney!
— bubba watson (@bubbawatson) June 23, 2013
Caddie-player issues weren’t anything new to see. To be honest, neither were the cringe inducing, annoying on-course antics at the hands of Bubba Watson. See the video below if you’re feeling out of the loop on that snide comment.
But even with all of the good and bad that is Bubba Watson, the scene of him blaming Ted for giving him two wrong clubs – one on the tee shot and the second on the re-tee, which flew the green – felt particularly dumb and unfair.
Furthermore, I had always assumed such behavior would be virtually nonexistent on the PGA Tour when considering the level of golf and the role of sports media in the modern world generally keeping people on their best behavior.
I suppose I was wrong about that.
Fast-forward to June of this year at the U.S. Open, where Jordan Spieth did something pretty similar.
With Jordan being the culprit came another bummer. Another golfer close to my heart – even from my hometown of Dallas too – acting a fool on camera. Not only that, but it was another one of my favorites, basically the third at this point alongside Kuchar and Bubba, to show a much less classy side of their character after having always been held in pretty high regard.
Jordan Spieth just completely called out his caddie on national TV. Whether the caddie misjudged it or not, that's a bush league move. At the end of the day, you're the one hitting the golf ball.#USOpen pic.twitter.com/lFSYQSGrvR
— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) June 13, 2019
It’s no secret that the last couple of years haven’t been the best for Jordan, and with that inevitably comes frustration. But with that in mind, it strikes me as strange that he would be complaining to his caddie, Michael Greller, over club selection. How could you be out of touch with what you expect the result of your club or shot selection to be, then blame it on someone else?
Furthermore, how and why is your reaction to so quickly blame somebody else? I don’t know, man. Generally, when I don’t like my shot, I just criticize myself and shut up.
Thinking about, researching, and discussing the issue, however, has made me realize that perhaps there is another side to the argument. That perhaps there is a case for why blaming caddies for mistakes made by the player can truly help elevate that player’s game.
Fine… I’ll bite. The following are some of my thoughts on both sides of the argument. I’ll skimp a little bit on the argument against blaming caddies (…maybe), because that’s obviously where I stand already.