Jim “Bones” Mackay will be walking the fairways of Muirfield Village Golf Club the next two weeks with a bag on his back again instead of a microphone in his hand.
Mackay, 53, who spent 25 years as Phil Mickelson’s sidekick, is coming out of retirement to caddie for Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick during the Dublin Double – the Workday Charity Open and The Memorial will both be held at Jack’s Place during the next two weeks.
According to a story posted by Golf Digest, Fitzpatrick didn’t recognize the phone number calling him and let it go to voice mail.
“The message said it was Bones, and he heard through the grapevine that I was in the market for a fill-in caddie,” Fitzpatrick told Golf Digest. “I told him I was honored that he was even reaching out.”
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In recent years, Fitzpatrick has had longtime caddie Billy Foster working for him, but Foster has elected to take time off rather than risking becoming infected with COVID-19 and having to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival in the U.S.
Fitzpatrick played the first three events of the Tour restart with mixed results: T-32 at Colonial, T-14 at Harbour Town and a missed cut at TPC River Highlands.
According to Golf Digest, Fitzpatrick first met Mackay when he played in Mickelson’s group as an amateur in the 2014 U.S. Open, and the two crossed paths occasionally because Mickelson and Fitzpatrick are both sponsored by Workday.
Mackay split from Mickelson in June 2017, and has become a respected on-course reporter for NBC Sports and Golf Channel. (The Workday Charity Open and The Memorial are both being broadcast by CBS.)
Mackay previously was called back into active duty as a caddie when Jimmy Johnson, the caddie for Justin Thomas, was out with a foot injury at the 2018 Sony Open.
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