Caddie Chronicles: From Myrtle Beach, UK, Africa and Spain to Contention at the U.S. Open

We hopped on a passing golf cart to get a lift back up to the clubhouse, which took us via the ninth hole. There was an ambulance in the middle of the fairway and beside it was a body under a sheet. Now we knew that things were much more serious then we had first imagined.

It turned out to be Ian Macgregor who had been caddying for Alistair Forsythe. I considered Ian one of my good friends on tour and had spent 45 minutes having coffee with him that very morning. Everyone was in total shock.

It took a couple hours before the body was removed from the field of play at which time everyone in the tournament assembled on the putting green for a minute of silence. In what must have been an agonizing decision, the tour decided to complete the round and the tournament.

Johan made a couple birdies on our remaining holes propelling him into top ten in the tournament but this success produced no joy. There must have been nearly two hours of play left and all you could see were players and caddies just going through the motions out there.

It was surely the strangest three holes of tournament golf I’ve ever experienced in my thirty years on tour. Normally Sunday evenings are a gregarious time for the caddies. With the week’s work done, the stories typically flow as fast as the beer. But the day finished with me sitting alone in an empty Portuguese bar nursing a pint of beer, contemplating the untimely departure of my friend and colleague. As somber a Sunday evening as I've ever had on tour.

With Johan having finished top 10 in Madeira he was automatically in the Spanish Open the next week. One week back on tour was now two. I hastily booked a new ticket and before I knew it I was in the beautiful Spanish town of Girona.

With a quiet river flowing through her, the town of Girona is one of the best stops on tour. You could spend a whole day crisscrossing the river on the over dozen pedestrian bridges that lead to the labyrinth of small streets leading to a hundred little bars and restaurants.

It’s near picture perfect.

And the course isn’t far behind. The P.G.A. Catalonia Club is one of the best courses in Spain and one of the toughest. At the end of the week the winner was none other then Miguel Ángel Jiménez. The 50-year-old Spaniard spanked all the young guys on his way to his 21st European tour victory.

Very impressive.

The win all but secured his place on the European Ryder Cup team. I'm sure that's the 1st time a player of his age has ever made that team.

Half way through the Spanish Open Johan informed me that he had received an invite to the PGA at Wentworth. The Wentworth week is the biggest tournament in Europe apart from the British Open so it didn’t take much convincing to get me to go along.

With the tournament being such a big event it brought people out that I hadn't seen in ages. I think I spent more time visiting that week then I did caddying. Half way through the week Johan told me that he had received an invitation to the Scandinavian Masters.

One week had now become four. It became apparent to me that I wasn't getting the hang of this whole retirement thing. So now I was off to Malmo, Sweden but it has to be said that Malmo would rate nearly number one on the caddie schedule. There is a little square in the centre of town surrounded by bars and even though the cost of alcohol is prohibitive in Sweden, there is one other attraction that makes the place irresistible.

I'll give you a hint: it comes in the color of blond. There has been more then one caddie that went to Malmo and never left again. Those siren's of Sweden have a way of turning the life of a wanderlust caddie into something more akin to a plugged lie. I should know, I was nearly a victim myself once upon a time.

The week was particularly enjoyable for me because Matteo Manassero managed to get a free room at the hotel the players were staying at for his caddie and he included me in the reservation. It was very enjoyable to spend the week in luxury. Life on tour would be pretty nice if you could live like that every week. The tournament was played on PGA National, a new course for the event. It was a beautiful links-like course that got the thumbs up from most of the players.

Now I'm at the US Open. I flew from London back to Myrtle Beach to pick up my car and drove to Pinehurst. Matt and I played three practice rounds (one of them with Lee Westwood and Darren Clarek that was a lot of fun) and I love the redesign of Pinehurst No. 2

Crenshaw and Coore took out the rough on each side of the fairway and replaced it with the sand and scrub land that was there when Donald Ross originally designed the course.
But those changes won't be the defining factor of the 2014 US Open. The up side down saucers that are called greens at Pinehurst will be the thing that separates the men from the boys.

The player that has the game, but more importantly, the patience is the one that will walk away with the tournament.
 
Matt, playing with Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose, shot a 71 in round one, leaving him near the top of the leaderboard.

I can't wait for the rest of the tournament. Bring it on!