After a split they both insist was not at all acrimonious, the former caddie for Bryson DeChambeau said on a podcast this week that his longtime employer is constantly pushing the envelope, even with support staff.
“Bryson is very demanding. I think that’s a great attribute from an employer because it makes you get better,” caddie Tim Tucker said on the Subpar podcast, hosted by former Tour player Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “If you’re not getting better and learning and pushing everything you’re doing, then you become complacent and start making mistakes and you’re not continuing to grow.
“He makes you do that, and it’s unbelievable. He demands it from everybody.”
Tucker quit working for DeChambeau, who sits No. 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking and No. 12 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, just ahead of his title defense at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
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Tucker caddied for DeChambeau in the practice rounds that week, including Wednesday’s pro-am. Tucker has been on the bag for DeChambeau for all of his eight PGA Tour victories, including the 2020 U.S. Open. DeChambeau went through a slew of caddies early in his career, including a previous break with Tucker, before making him his steady bagman in 2018.
The two met when DeChambeau was 15 at Dragonfly Golf Club in Fresno, California, where Tucker was teaching green reading. He said by the end of the week, DeChambeau was helping to teach the course.
“He wrapped his head around it so fast,” Tucker said. “I’m asking, hey Bryson, what do you do? He said, ‘Well, I don’t watch TV, but I love science, I love physics.’ He was telling me that he believes in time travel, but it’s possible that we’ll never figure it out, and he’s probably right.
“He’s rarely wrong about the things that he’s pushing.”
DeChambeau was scheduled to be participating in the Tokyo Olympics, but as part of the final testing protocol before he left the United States for Japan, he tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Tucker — a former Bandon Dunes caddie — is set to open a new Bandon Dunes-based luxury bus transportation business in August and had been working on that venture.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be able to caddie for this guy,” Tucker added. “He is the hardest-working guy I’ve ever seen. He sacrifices everything for this game.”
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