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August 3, 2007

Golf snits

For pure entertainment value, there is nothing quite like an eruption between a PGA Tour player and his caddie during the heat of competition. This Jeff Rude/GolfWorld commentary reports on the latest such incident was between PGA Tour member Jay Williamson and his caddie, Mike Mollet, during the first round of last week's Canadian Open:

Both agree that Mollet, on the tee of the par 3, said the wind was blowing right to left. Both agree that Williamson hit a 9-iron over the green long left. Both agree that Williamson hit a weak chip from a bad lie to about 30 feet from the hole. Both agree a frustrated Williamson told Mollet he thought the wind was blowing downwind, not across, and that Mollet disagreed. Both agree that Williamson fired Mollet after an ensuing heated argument on the green. Both agree that Mollet threw a few of Williamson’s golf balls into a pond after getting canned. Both agree that Williamson used a spectator as his caddie the last four holes. [. . .]

What they disagree on is what ignited the explosion. Williamson said Mollet lost his cool first and embarrassed him with too much emotional talk and Williamson reacted. Mollet said Williamson lost his cool first and embarrassed him with too much emotional talk and Mollet reacted.

Williamson said the caddie kept yelling at him loudly, calling him a “whiner” among other personal insults, and used the F-word. Mollet said he got riled because Williamson directed the F-word and A-word toward him after the bad chip and while disagreeing about the wind direction. Williamson said he can’t recall swearing.

Read the entire article about the spat, which is about par for the course in such matters. But Chris Lewis reminds us of my favorite player-caddie tiff, which occurred about 10 years ago between the volatile PGA Tour member Fulton Allem and his caddie, "Bullet" Burns. During the second round of the Heritage tournament at Hilton Head, Allem was struggling badly with his swing on the front nine and, while waiting to tee off on the 8th hole, had this exchange with his caddie:

"I feel like breaking something," observed Allem

Burns didn't miss a beat: "How about breaking par?"

“Very funny," Fultie replied. "You’re fired.”

Posted by Tom at August 3, 2007 12:05 AM

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