We have just come to the end of a marathon session of tournaments.
It’s been a good run but a longer one than a caddie/player combination of such years would normally embark upon. The BMW Championship in the elegant Cherry Hills Golf Club south of Denver marked the end of Ernie Els’s FedEx Cup challenge for this year.
It spelled the end for many players in the play-off series, leaving quite a number disappointed but somehow relieved that they were going to enjoy a break from the intensity of charged competition.
We are all fairly well acclimatised to the unpredictable nature of the final showdown of the 2014 PGA season. I know it is only early September but such is the way the year falls on the lucrative US Tour in its search for television ratings and a secure future.
Billy Horschel won the event, Chris Kirk won the previous week, neither of them are on the US Ryder Cup team but both stand a good chance of winning the four-week long FedEx pot of life-changing gold. Last year's play-off winner Henrik Stenson will not be in Atlanta today defending his title due to his relatively mediocre recent performances and the condensed nature of the points system, with five times as many points on offer for the final four events. It has got to be the only event where the title holder does not necessarily defend his title.
Another casualty is Phil Mickelson who has failed to make the Tour Championships for the first time since its inception. If it is television ratings that the Tour are chasing then you do not want Phil or Tiger missing from your main event. Such is the nature of the FedEx Cup. On the positive side the event has given some unexpected players a chance to change their golfing careers dramatically with a timely discovery of form. Morgan Hoffman has been catapulted into the mix with a stunning 15 under par weekend in Colorado.
The system was partly designed to encourage aggressive performances and Hoffmann is living proof of that. Much like Geoff Ogilvy’s hot streak in Boston the previous week, which has catapulted him from zero to hero in one low-scoring weekend.
The problem now is that without a break in the four events due to the imminent Ryder Cup, the challenge players are suffering from is mental if not physical fatigue. Quite a few players were left cramming in events in the lead up to the play-offs in order to make sure they at least got into the first two events by improving their rankings. Ogilvy got in as a result of his timely win in Reno the same week as the main event in Akron in August.
It is a double-edged sword where the contestants in East Lake this week, although delighted to be there, are maybe out of sorts with their schedule. Many players would only normally play three weeks in a row in order to optimise the chance of peak performance. This varies and the younger players are probably grateful to play when they can. So don’t be surprised if a less recognisable name is on the end of the $10 million bonus next Sunday in Atlanta. It would appear that Rory McIlroy with a weekend of two four putts at Cherry Hills is slightly drained by his past two months of outstanding performance. Leading tournaments is a mentally sapping experience. He has led and won so many of late, despite his resilience and youth he has got to be craving a golf free week.
I am not getting soft on the players by suggesting that they are in danger of burn-out, but the margins are so narrow and the course set-ups are so unforgiving over the closing holes that a nano
second of lack of concentration can cost rifting shots.
The tour does not want a lingering image of their stars limping over the finish line in East Lake. My own player Ernie, who has given all his energy and experience over the past two months, is happy that he has finally got a chance to recharge this week despite desperately wanting to make the Tour Championships in East Lake. He admitted that he was already suffering from uncontrollable lack of decisive concentration in the middle of his rounds last week that he can only put down to overplay.
On a more buoyant note last week’s BMW event in Cherry Hills set a new standard of hospitality for us loopers. With haute cuisine catering and a barber on duty in the plush caddie locker room the club and sponsors left a lasting impression of what was the final event of the season for 40 of us bagmen.
The event is run by the Western Golf Association who promote the Evans Scholarship Foundation. Since 1930, the foundation has sent more than 10,000 caddies to college on full tuition and housing scholarships.
They obviously have a soft spot for us bag-toters. No matter how fatigued the golfers may have been the pampering that the caddies received at Cherry Hills is something we will never tire of.
