There’s Nothing Like Golf – Updated

Really, there is no other sport like it. I’m not actually a golf fan, but I find it interesting, and regularly attend the major tournament (The Memorial — a/k/a Jack’s Tournament) that happens within walking distance of my home.

Professional golf is interesting because it is the only major sport that is welded with iron bonds to ancient concepts of honor, sportsmanship, courtesy, and personal responsibility.

That was bad news today for Sergio Garcia at the PGA.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Another bad break for Sergio Garcia: This one got him disqualified from the PGA Championship.Garcia got the boot Saturday for signing an incorrect scorecard after the third round. In tournament golf, players keep each other’s scores. Garcia’s playing partner, Boo Weekley, put down a 4 for Garcia on the 17th hole when the Spaniard actually made a 5.

It’s the player’s responsibility to ensure his scorecard is accurate before he signs it. Garcia didn’t. And when the mistake was noticed in the scoring tent, Garcia had already left.

“He just took off,” Weekley said. “I called him back down and tried to get him before he got all the way up the stairs.”

Garcia did, in fact, return to the scoring area, but only to be told he had been disqualified. Once he left what PGA officials call the “scoring area perimeter,” his scorecard was considered turned in and not able to be changed.

Bad Number: Garcia Signs Incorrect Card

The article does not mention the hidden default here. PGA pros hire professionals to make sure this kind of thing does not happen. They’re called caddys. A PGA caddy is a highly compensated professional. He is not just there to carry the bag, rake the sand traps, and pick the club.

A caddy on the pro tour is a psychologist. Golf is the most mental professional game in existence. It’s mostly a head game, requiring intense concentration at super-stressful moments where enormous amounts of money are at stake. Great golfers can be fat (John Daly) or super-fit (Tiger) — the most important difference is where their head is at and their confidence level. A caddy is there to make sure the pro stays focused on the game. And the game includes signing the score card.

From Wikipedia:

A duty of a good caddy often overlooked is the ability to keep their golfer focused and not waiver psychologically from the task at hand. This is clearly the toughest of all caddy skills to learn and it requires a great deal of experience and understanding of the game of golf. A caddy that can positively impact the psyche of their golfer, especially if the golfer is not consciously aware of what the caddy is trying to do, can be extremely valuable. Golf arguably relies on mental aspects of the body more than any other sport in today’s world and if the mind is not comfortable, calm, and focused, disaster is likely to occur. A crucial factor in performing the psychological duties of a caddy is that to be as effective as possible, the caddy must know the golfer very well. This is typically only possible if the caddy is on the pro tour, a family member/friend, or works regularly for the same member at a country club.

Duties of Caddys

UPDATED below the break

So, I’m thinking that Sergio needs to be cheered up. Just in case Sergio reads this site, I have an excellent music selection for him.

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BTW, Padraig Harrington recently won the British Open. This only matters to me because Mrs. Michael and I had dinner with him a couple of years ago when he was playing the Memorial. It was a chance meeting at a local Irish-style joint (Padraig is Irish, in case you didn’t know that from the name).

Padraig is a very relaxed and pleasant person, as is his caddy. However, the dinner was a little bit awkward, because Mrs. Michael and I were also with this chick who was determined to fuck Padraig and/or his caddy, and she wasn’t being very subtle about it. To their credit, Padraig and his caddy made it clear that they were not interested.

I respect that, because the chick they rejected was actually kinda hot.  But they were focused on the game, and did not need any distractions.   So, I’m tipping my hat to Padraig and his caddy for having the focus it takes to win the British Open.