GREENSBORO, N.C. – Webb Simpson’s wife, Dowd, knows the caddie mantra: show up, keep up, shut up.
“I’ve been reciting all of the things that a caddie does every night before I go to bed,” she said. “So it’s now just a matter of taking what I know and putting it into practice. You stay still, you keep quiet, don’t step in anyone’s line, and never pick up the ball.”
Dowd will be on the bag for her husband this week at the Wyndham Championship when it eventually gets under way – the first round was postponed until Friday due to Tropical Storm Debby.
Dowd has lugged Webb’s luggage at Augusta National in the Par-3 Contest before but this will be her first time in an official PGA Tour tournament.
“He’s not gonna ask me any numbers,” Dowd told PGA Tour.com on Tuesday. “I don’t know how to do addition, subtraction. I don’t even know what a yard is, so not gonna happen. I’m so bad with numbers. I’m terrible at math.
“I’m really hoping he doesn’t get in any bunkers. I don’t want to rake too many of those.”
A special week in his home state ❤️
@WebbSimpson1 has his wife Dowd on the bag @WyndhamChamp. pic.twitter.com/nreGQhfZ6R— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 6, 2024
Simpson, who was born in Raleigh, went to college down the road at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem and lives in Charlotte, has a long-running love affair with Sedgefield Country Club and the Wyndham. This is where he played his first big AJGA event, where he earned his first PGA Tour title in 2011, where his father, Sam, presented him the trophy, and where he’s been a veritable ATM, recording 10 top-10s, highlighted by a stretch of four consecutive top-three finishes. No wonder he and wife Dowd named their third of five children Wyndham Rose.
“This feels like another home tournament for me,” Simpson said. “A lot of flashbacks happen this week, just of junior golf, my development in high school and then in college.”
Simpson is going to need a little of his Sedgefield magic. He’s recorded just one top-25 finish this season and enters the week at No. 147 in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. As a matter of fact, he’ll need a win to leap into the top 70 and qualify for the playoffs. But having his wife on the bag brings a new experience.
“We’re really excited,” said Webb. “We talk about how so often my job pulls me away from her and the kids, but this week she gets to come inside the ropes and really see what it’s about from that perspective.”
And you never know, having Dowd on the bag could be just the spark his game needs: in 2013 Patrick Reed won this tournament with wife Justine on the bag in a playoff.