A few thoughts on caddies and the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor

Like most of us I wasn’t able to watch the 2010 Ryder Cup live and didn’t really want to watch a tape delay. I was up at 2:30 Friday morning waiting for the drama but the squeegees sent me slumbering. I wanted to brag about my team support, everyone on the practice tee thought I was a bit touched.

Rock Barn’s practice tee caddie tent had a flat screen TV and we gathered around it every free moment. There were two ex-caddie captains and a couple handfuls of veteran Ryder Cup caddies spewing information at the screen and whoever may be listening.

During the Four Ball and Foursome matches every time a player wandered toward his partner trying to disseminate information someone would yell, “Get the @%#& away and let them do their job!”

The American team sucks during the team competition because there are too many caddies. “Bones” knows Phil’s game better than Dustin, and Bobby Brown works better with Dustin without Phil and “Bones” butting in. One player, one caddie that’s all you need reading a putt or pulling a club. Stay out of the way, boys, and let us do our job. Four guys reading a putt cause a lot of confusion and more missed putts.

The European crew travels, drinks, and practices together, we don’t. Players shouldn’t try to pull clubs and read putts for each other, let the caddies do their job and get out of the way. We’re fine in the singles matches because everyone is deep into their routine, one player and one caddie pulling a club or reading a putt.

A few roars from the caddie tent disrupted the practice tee Sunday morning and not many discussed college football, all eyes and ears were on the Ryder Cup. If Sunday would have been on schedule with a player and caddie working as one, no one would have warmed up before their round. We enjoy watching a player and caddie working together; too many voices in the pot spoil the soup and lose team matches.