WHEN TV coverage of the CA championship at Doral in Florida eavesdropped on some of the conversations between Phil Mickelson and his caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay during the final round of that tournament, the soundtrack of the participants debating club or shot selection was more compelling than much of what was said on air by the commentators.
While anything innovative that television broadcasters can do to make the armchair viewer feel closer to the on-course action is worthy of consideration as a means of making golf more attractive to a wider audience, the point needs to be made that no
t every golfer and caddie are as verbal, never mind as eloquent, as the partnership of Mickelson and Mackay.
Since it’s not entirely unknown for the gentlemen who carry the bags to pepper their repartee with both profanity and gossip, one would guess the dynamic of private chats between caddies and players would need to change before agreement was reached for them to wear microphones on the course for five hours.
According to reports from America, however, the PGA Tour was so impressed by the impact made by the player and caddie exchanges on air during the World Championship event that they’re investigating the possibility of making the feature a regular part of broadcasts.
Apparently, it’s the technical challenge of picking up clear audio rather than any worries over inadvertent cursing which places a question mark against the practice becoming more common. The TV companies say they already have a time delay to block inappropriate comment, though it didn’t stop them picking up a particularly foul-mouthed aside from Tiger Woods during the US Open at Pebble Beach in 2000 when he pulled a tee shot on the 18th.
Since it’s debatable whether football would ever sanction TV cameras to broadcast a manager’s half-time team talk or the instructions shouted by coaches to players from the touchline, it’s easy to understand why caddies might have a few reservations about their comments going on air. No broadcaster, mark you, would have wanted to miss that famous exchange in the Fifties between Tommy Bolt and his caddie, Hagan, a local man who knew the Riviera club in Los Angeles better than most. Hagan told the short tempered pro to play a 6-iron.
“No it’s a 5-iron,” replied Bolt. “You’re crazy.” After Bolt hit the 5-iron 20 yards over the back of the green, he snapped the club. Hagan looked at the player askance, broke the 6-iron over his knee and walked off the course.
A nice man with a wicked temper, Bolt met his match in the Ryder Cup when he crossed swords with Eric Brown, the fiery Bathgate golfer. Bolt knew Brown was a typical Scot, who liked to play quickly. So he slowed down to a snail’s pace. In the days before on-course big-boom microphones, Brown enjoyed a conversation with his caddie which, sadly, went unrecorded.
The outcome of their chat, though, was spectacular. The caddie ran off to the clubhouse and came back with a chair. While Bolt dithered, the Scot sat himself down. Brown went on to win the tie 4&3.
