Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay to serve as NBC lead analyst at Mexico Open at Vidanta

Justin Thomas is skipping the Mexico Open, which frees up his caddie for some TV work.

Justin Thomas is skipping the PGA Tour’s Mexico Open this week but his caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, will be busy doing a first for TV.

Mackay will serve as the lead analyst for NBC Sports on the telecast of the Tour event South of the border, the first time an active caddie has ever filled that role.

NBC Sports parted ways with Paul Azinger late last year as his contract was set to expire at the end of the season and the network has been rotating voices ever since. PGA Tour pro Kevin Kisner, who handled duties at The Sentry and WM Phoenix Open, former European Ryder Cup captain and SkySports/Golf Channel commentator Paul McGinley did so at the Hero World Challenge, Curt Byrum took a spin at the Sony Open in Hawaii, and Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee worked The American Express, all taking turns as the lead analyst during NBC telecasts.

Mackay, though, isn’t interested in the full-time job and made it clear, via an NBC spokesman, that his upcoming TV appearance shouldn’t be interpreted as him throwing his hat in the ring for the job. (Efforts to reach Mackay for comment were unsuccessful before publication of this story.) With Thomas taking the week off after playing four of the last five events on Tour, Mackay is available but he’s devoted to caddying for Thomas, who he has worked for since returning to caddying full-time in 2022. He was on the bag for Thomas when he won the 2022 PGA Championship and most recently this week at the Genesis Championship, where Thomas missed the cut.

2024 Genesis Invitational
Caddie Jim Mackay at the 2024 Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)

Mackay spent a stretch of 25 years as caddie for Phil Mickelson before joining NBC in 2017 as an on-course reporter and quickly becoming one of the best in the business in that role. Mackay has continued to dabble in doing TV for NBC when Thomas has been off, including for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship last year.

A spokesman for NBC Sports said that Mackay will walk as an on-course reporter on Thursday and be part of a three-man booth for the remaining three rounds with veteran pro Brad Faxon, and Steve Sands and Dan Hicks rotating as host.

The Mexico Open marks the first of seven straight weeks that NBC will broadcast PGA Tour events, including the Players Championship. NBC is mum about who else might get an opportunity as it tries out different voices and take time in selecting a permanent replacement. Tune in next week to find out who will be next to get a spin in the big chair.

The hilarious story of how Daniel Berger hired his caddie for the American Express

Daniel Berger is returning to the PGA Tour but the better story may be who will be carrying his bag.

HONOLULU – Daniel Berger is set to make his return to the PGA Tour after an 18-month absence Thursday at the American Express in La Quinta, California. But the better story may be who will be carrying his bag.

Berger is set to have veteran caddie D.J. Nelson, who was on the bag for Heath Slocum when he won the 2009 Barclays, working for him in the desert. Nelson, who also has caddied for the likes of Chad Campbell and Hudson Swafford in the past, however, hasn’t been caddying on Tour for several years.

So, why did Berger turn to Nelson, who began caddying in 2001?

Here’s where the story gets good. Berger phoned Nelson and attempted to hire him. According to multiple sources – Berger didn’t return a call for comment at publication of this story – when Nelson accepted, Berger expressed surprise and asked, “So, you’re going to give up doing the TV?”

A perplexed Nelson responded, “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

“John Wood,” Berger said.

Wood, of course, is the former caddie of Hunter Mahan and Matt Kuchar, among others, turned NBC/Golf Channel on-course reporter. One of the most respected caddies in the game, he retired and joined the TV world in 2021 and said this week at the Sony Open, where he’s been working, that he’s happy with his new gig carrying a microphone instead of 14 clubs.

When Berger realized his mistake in dialing the wrong number, he didn’t blink and offered Nelson the job – at least for one week at the AmEx.

As one former caddie put it, “Classic Berger.” But maybe Berger knew something after all: Nelson has a good track record at PGA West including being on the bag for Swafford when he won there in 2017.

The 30-year-old Berger, a four-time Tour winner, has been sidelined with a back injury since missing the cut at the 2022 U.S. Open. He had been nursing the injury, which he described to the Associated Press as being a slight bulge in a lower disc and deep bone sensitivity, for most of that year. He signed up for U.S. Open qualifying in June but pulled out before he hit a shot.

Berger was a member of the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits that year and was sorely missed in Italy in September. He was ranked No. 25 in the world when he last played and has since dropped to No. 634. He still has exempt status through 2024 from notching his last win at the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but isn’t qualified yet for the signature events or majors.

“When I come back, I’ll come back with fire in my belly,” he told the AP in May.

And with a surprising caddie by his side.

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Caddie carousel: Tom Kim hires new caddie, Cameron Young to have new bagman as Paul Tesori heads to a veteran pro

Plenty of players will have new caddies in 2024.

Tis the season to be jolly as well as for pro golfers to switch golf gear and change caddies.

The caddie carousel is the focus of this story. Ludvig Aberg, No. 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking, got the party started a few weeks ago by hiring Joe Skovron away from Tom Kim.

“For next year, all I’m looking for is more experience in these bigger tournaments,” he told Smylie Kaufman on his podcast “The Smylie Show.” “I wanted someone I could rely on 1,000 percent, and I think with the experience in the past that Joe has kind of speaks for itself and I think that’s mainly what I’m looking for. Playing a U.S. Open where you win with 6 under, it’s difficult to get away with mistakes and I think that’s what went into that decision.”

Golfweek has learned that Kim has hired a replacement, choosing Daniel Parratt, who formerly caddied for Kim’s International Team Presidents Cup teammate K.H. Lee.

Kim, who is ranked No. 11 in the world, won the Shriners Children’s Open twice with Skovron on the bag and was the darling of the 2022 Presidents Cup. Kim’s agent declined to confirm the caddie change.

Kim isn’t the only top-25 ranked player who will have a new caddie next season. Golfweek has learned that Cameron Young will have a new sidekick, too, when he starts the season at The Sentry in Maui.

Longtime caddie Paul Tesori confirmed to Golfweek that he has jumped ship to the bag of veteran pro Brendon Todd, a three-time Tour winner who is coming off a season in which he finished in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup and is booked for eight signature events in 2024. Tesori, who spent more than 12 years working for Webb Simpson, joined Young one of the top young players on Tour and ranked No. 21 in the world, in March at the WGC-Dell Match Play.

But with Todd’s caddie David Clark moving to LIV to work for Ian Poulter, Tesori, who has been dealing with a back injury, has opted to go with the veteran over a rising star who has seemed on the verge of reaching the winner’s circle for some time. It’s unclear who will work for Young next season. An email requesting comment was unanswered at this time. But with the new season scheduled to start on Jan. 4, it won’t be long until we find out.

Who’s caddying for Tiger Woods at the Hero World Challenge? Here’s the audacious story of his big break

“It’s pretty cool to see a kid who started out being overwhelmed and look where he is today.”

NASSAU, Bahamas — Rick Rielly, the longtime director of golf at Wilshire Country Club, still remembers the first time Rob McNamara showed up to work for him.

“He was 13 or 14 years old and 80 pounds sopping wet,” he said. “He shows up with a towel, he might’ve had a ball retriever and I had him sit on the bench outside the golf shop until something opened up for a single because the caddie yard was a bit gruff in those days.”

Thirty-five years or so later, McNamara, 48, has a single bag for the next four days at the Hero World Challenge – the one and only Tiger Woods.

With Joe LaCava, Woods’s caddie since 2011, having moved on to Patrick Cantlay last year when Woods was sidelined following surgery to his right ankle in April, Woods was in need of a bagman this week – and likely at the PNC Championship and beyond – and turned to his right-hand man in McNamara, who has been one of his closest confidants for more than two decades.

“He’s seen me hit a few shots,” Woods said, underselling the value McNamara has brought to his game since he went without a coach beginning in 2017. (McNamara caddied most recently for Justin Thomas in The Payne Valley Cup, a made-for-TV exhibition in 2020 at the course Woods designed.)

All those years ago, McNamara’s father, who had a thick Irish brogue and lived in the neighborhood, talked his way past the gate at Wilshire, a private club not far from Hollywood, and charmed Rielly into giving his son his start in the game. McNamara was shy with a goofy laugh and a thick head of curly hair, but before long members took a liking to him and he worked his way into the bag room while also developing into a decent stick. He went off to Santa Clara University in Northern California and played on the golf team, graduating as a physics major in 1997, just as Tiger was getting started as a worldbeater. But it was golf not science where McNamara eyed making his mark.

After college, Rielly’s father, Pat, moved into the picture as an important figure in McNamara’s career development. Pat was a former PGA president and director of golf at Annandale Golf Club in Pasadena, and hired McNamara as an assistant pro, working in the shop. It wasn’t long before McNamara realized the club pro ranks wasn’t the path for him.

2019 Masters
Tiger Woods celebrates with Rob McNamara, Vice President of TGR Ventures, as he comes off the 18th green at the 2019 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

He did a stint at a start-up golf website but when that company went under, Pat assisted on his next big break. When McNamara showed an interest in working as a sports agent, Pat asked his other son, Mike, who worked at IMG – the sports marketing giant founded by Mark McCormack – to arrange an interview. Pat was a good judge of talent, and McNamara got hired in 2000 as an account manager. Shortly after he moved to Cleveland and started at the firm that represented Arnold Palmer, Annika Sorenstam and Woods, one of the company’s top executives, Alastair Johnston, invited McNamara to his office for a get-to-know meeting. 

“It took only a few minutes for Alastair to explain that in all his years Mr. McCormack had never weighed in on a hire at my level before, but after one short call with Pat that all had changed,” McNamara told Golfweek in 2022. “Pat somehow managed to convince Mark, a power-broker attorney and sports-marketing pioneer, that I was the only possible candidate that could handle the job and that it would be a massive mistake for IMG to miss out on this random ex-college golfer who at 24 years old had little to no experience.”

The curly hair is long gone but McNamara has gone on to become Woods’ right-hand man, with an official title of executive vice president of TGR Ventures.

In his early days at IMG, new media was new and he was a digital native, who helped protect Tiger’s rights.

“None of us knew what it meant, and Rob figured it out,” Mike Rielly said.

He became part of Team Tiger with the likes of Kathy Battaglia and Chris Hubman, later leaving IMG altogether when Woods formed his own company. Outside of Mark Steinberg, who has served as Tiger’s longtime agent, McNamara’s been one of Tiger’s most loyal and longest-tenured associates through thick and thin, a contemporary who speaks the same language and a second set of eyes and ears he depends on. It’s a remarkable trajectory from teenage caddie to being in the inner circle with the greatest golfer of his time in a relationship where the respect goes both ways.

“Seeing Robert on TV today, it’s pretty cool to see a kid who started out being overwhelmed and look where he is today,” Rick Rielly said. “He got his break and he took it.”

Stanford superstar Rose Zhang hires veteran LPGA caddie as she embarks on professional career

Zhang’s 12 career college titles sets a school record at Stanford.

Rose Zhang makes her professional debut at this week’s LPGA Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National, and she’ll have a veteran caddie by her side.

Jason Gilroyed, who most recently worked for Minjee Lee for five seasons, will be part of Zhang’s team as she makes the transition from Stanford.

Zhang, 20, became the first woman to win back-to-back NCAA titles last week in Arizona. She won 12 times in 20 starts at Stanford, including eight wins this season. Tiger Woods once won eight times in a single season at Stanford.

Zhang’s 12 career college titles set a school record at Stanford, besting Woods (26 events), Patrick Rodgers (35 events) and Maverick McNealy (45 events) who all won 11 times. Zhang matched Lorena Ochoa for the most wins in Pac-12 history. She finished the season with a 68.81 scoring average over 31 rounds, nearly a stroke better than her 69.68 NCAA record from freshman season.

2022 U.S. Women's Open
Minjee Lee prepares to hit her tee shot with her caddie Jason Gilroyed on the 12th hole during the final round of the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina. (Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images)

Zhang has exemptions into all four majors this summer, including the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach. Gilroyed and his son Tyler, a student at SMU, recently visited with Zhang at Stanford. After a tour of campus and dinner, they went to Pebble Beach the next day for a practice round where Zhang teed it up with the director of golf.

“She shot 4 under pretty easily at 6 a.m. at Pebble when it was pretty cold,” said Gilroyed, who started caddying on the LPGA in 1996, working long stints with Rosie Jones, Cristie Kerr, Anna Nordqvist, Alison Lee and Minjee Lee.

The even-keeled Gilroyed has been on the bag for 26 LPGA wins, including four majors.

Last fall, Zhang set a new women’s course record at Pebble Beach when she shot 9-under 63 in the second round of the 2022 Carmel Cup.

“If I had to describe her game it would be more a Jin Young (Ko),” he said, “you know it’s going to be about precision.”

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Michael Block wasn’t the only one who had his biggest payday at the 2023 PGA Championship. His caddie did too

Caddie John Jackson did some math on the calculator app on his phone after Block finished T-15.

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Club pro Michael Block wasn’t the only one who cashed the biggest check of his life at the 105th PGA Championship on Sunday.

His caddie, John Jackson, did the math on the calculator app of his phone  Sunday evening after Block finished T-15, the best result by a club pro since 1986, and earned $288,333. Jackson’s take home: $20,183.31.

In a video that was posted on social media, Block looks at the figure (7 percent of Block’s winnings) on Jackson’s phone, smiles widely, slaps him five and gives him knuckles.

“It’s been unreal, surreal, literally a dream, a movie, whatever,” Jackson said Sunday as Block was honored at the 18th green for being the low finisher among the club pros. “Mike and I were pinching ourselves going down the fairways. It was weird. The whole thing is crazy.”

Jackson’s regular job is caddying for resort guests at Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach, California, where he’s looped full-time since 2017. In college, Jackson played for the Cal State Monterey Bay Otters and was part of the NCAA Division II National Championship team in 2011.

Block was one of 20 PGA professionals to qualify for the PGA Championship. He is a 10-time Southern California PGA Player of the Year and the reigning PGA Professional of the Year. Jackson and Block met as competitors at a California State Open around 10 years ago. Block played at the TaylorMade Pebble Beach Invitational one year and Jackson got on his bag and they almost won.

Jackson had previously worked a few majors, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – but only for amateurs – and the PGA Tour Champions Pure Insurance Open for the last 15 years. Jackson caddied for Block at the PGA at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last year during the practice rounds but got promoted to full status at Oak Hill.

“He called me and said, ‘Do you want to do the whole week this year?’ And we made it the whole week,” Jackson said.

Of Block’s hole-in-one, Jackson noted that he hadn’t made a putt all day. “I said, ‘Just hit it closer,’ ” Jackson recalled.

He did, flying a 7-iron at 15 directly into the cup.

“I wasn’t helping much because I was pumping him up,” Jackson said.

Initially, Jackson planned to decompress on Monday and Tuesday and get back to reality. He said he had some vacationers who had requested work. That all changed when Block was offered a sponsor exemption into the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, which got underway Thursday. Jackson is back on the bag for another Tour start and a chance for another gigantic payday.

“I’d do it again right now if I could,” Jackson said Sunday.

It turns out he didn’t have to wait that long.

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SAXX Underwear announces partnership with PGA Tour caddies to support cancer research with hilarious video

For every birdie a caddie’s player makes, SAXX Underwear will donate $100 to the Testicular Cancer Foundation.

Golf caddies are tasked with taking care of their players week in and week out, but the boys on the bag need some support, too.

That’s why the folks at SAXX Underwear have stepped in and partnered with a handful of PGA Tour caddies to help with their own equipment and make a positive difference along the way.

Tour caddies Geno Bonnalie (Joel Dahmen), Aaron Flener (J.T. Poston), John Limanti (Keith Mitchell) and Joel Stock (Will Zalatoris) will wear SAXX underwear, shorts and polos on and off the course, and for every birdie their players make, SAXX will donate $100 to the Testicular Cancer Foundation.

“The Ball Masters” will also have their own caddie house when the U.S. Open heads to Los Angeles Country Club, June 15-18, 2023.

As Bonnalie likes to say, “every set of balls deserves a proper caddie.”

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Masters caddies wear the ‘tuxedo of all caddie uniforms’ at Augusta National

Caddies at the Masters are decked out what is described as the “tuxedo of all caddie uniforms.”

Caddies are as much a part of the tradition at the Masters as the pink azaleas, pimento cheese sandwiches and the green jacket.

Did you know that for 46 years Augusta National Golf Club provided Masters participants with a caddie?

In 1982, Craig Stadler won the tournament with Ben Bussey on the bag. Little did anyone know at the time that would mark the end of an era, as seven months later, on Nov. 12, 1982, the club announced that professional golfers would be allowed to bring own caddies.

The loopers at Augusta are easy to spot. They are decked out what the official Masters.com website describes as the “tuxedo of all caddie uniforms”:

A bright white, long-sleeved jumpsuit, with the green-outlined Masters logo on the right breast pocket, the caddie number on the left breast pocket and the player name on back – all Velcroed to the white fabric – topped by a green ball cap.

Check out some photos of the caddies at the Masters Tournament.

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Masters survey 2023: How do pros decide who will caddie for them at the Par 3 Contest?

Here’s how the pros choose who is going to be on their bag.

Who would be willing to don an Augusta National white jumpsuit and caddie at the Masters Par 3 Contest?

Or perhaps the better question would be who wouldn’t be willing to do so? It’s become a family affair on the Wednesday before the Masters, the calm before the storm, with wives and girlfriends, children and grandchildren among those serving as caddies.

If the site of toddlers in their miniature jumpsuits tending a flagstick doesn’t bring a smile to your face, well, we simply can’t be friends.

Through the years, celebrities such as tennis stars Chris Evert, Caroline Wozniacki and Andy Roddick, NFL QB Matt Ryan, musician Niall Horan and NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson have been among those toting bags.

The Par 3 Contest, which is scheduled for April 5, dates back to 1960 when Sam Snead claimed the title. This year, contestants will play a new version of the club’s short course, which received a makeover. The exhibition starts at noon. Live streaming video coverage will be available on Masters.com at 2 p.m. ET.

Here’s how the pros choose who is going to be on their bag.

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Cyclone delays Adam Scott’s caddie Steve Williams arrival to 2023 Genesis Invitational

A cyclone disrupted nearly 600 flights, including the flight Williams was scheduled to take.

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Adam Scott and caddie Steve Williams are scheduled to resume their partnership this week on the PGA Tour at the Genesis Invitational, but Mother Nature has had other plans.

Williams, who lives in New Zealand, was still en route from his home in Auckland after Cyclone Gabrielle hammered the country’s North Island. When asked if Williams had made it to the Golden State yet during his 2 p.m. PT news conference Wednesday, Scott said, “Not yet, A couple hours out still.”

The cyclone disrupted nearly 600 flights, including the flight Williams was scheduled to take. Government officials in New Zealand declared a state of emergency after what reportedly was one of the worst storms in years. Scott used Liam Bedor, the head of operations for L.A.B. Putters, as a fill-in caddie during Wednesday’s pro-am.

Williams, who was on the bag for 13 of the 15 majors won by Tiger Woods, worked for Scott from 2011 until 2017, including when Scott won the 2013 Masters and reached No. 1 in the world. Scott said they had remained friends and in communication and had a conversation about reuniting at the end of last season. They worked two events together in Australia in December.

“We slipped back into the rhythm really quickly and we had a good couple weeks and I expect that to happen out here as well,” Scott said. “Having him come out fresh at this point, it’s just funny how at different times in your life, he’s now hit a point where his kid’s grown up and probably doesn’t want to hang with Dad quite as much and he’s itching to get back out here, as much as he’d hate to admit it, it’s in his blood to be out here and caddie and he loves it, and I’m pleased that we’re going to have the opportunity to do a bit more together.”

Scott’s plan is for Williams and Greg Hearmon to share caddie duties.

“[Stevie’s] a pretty intense guy. Whether he was working for me or working for any other pro, whether he’s competing at driving his race car or whether he’s raking the leaves off his lawn at home, he’s an intense character once he gets his mind on something,” Scott said. “There’s no changing that personality. He’s out here to achieve. I think that can be a really good influence on me.”

Scott said he’s eyeing the next three years as a window where he can add at least another major to his resume, and no caddie has been more successful in the majors than Williams.

“I thought about it long and hard. Given where my life is overall, a full season of Steve could be too intense and not productive but a bit of Steve and a bit of Greg could really complement me,” he said. “The next three years unless I have some injury pop up, I’m in good shape to contend. I see everything settling into place where I can be a top 10 player in the world and therefore a legitimate contender.”

Scott last competed at the Sony Hawaiian Open in January, where he finished T-29. Scott won the Genesis Invitational in 2020 and 2005 and finished T-4 last year.  He has a 69.54 career scoring average in 52 rounds at Riviera.

Scott’s tee time for Thursday’s first round is 10:35 a.m. ET (7:35 a.m. local time). He’s hopeful that Williams will be by his side.

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