Caddies Get Off on Lines

The 'read' is fundamental and an art form in itself, 'The Kilted Caddie' explains…

Bubba Watson has been caught by television cameras and microphones several times when yelling at his caddie, Ted Scott

Now I am not talking about the narcotic stuff here. I mean the line of a putt of course.

It is a huge thing for us and has the same quality to a caddie as say a beautiful movement would have to a master watchmaker, or a smooth motorway to a bloke who works for Tarmac. I mean we can get off on lines.

It can be a sublime thing to read a difficult putt. To watch your player hit the perfect stroke which follows the designated path and fall into the back of the hole. It is a bit like poetry, because it can be such a fine and nuanced and delicate thing. As one unsuitable word, can throw and give a whole different hue to a piece of writing, so can a slightly misread putt. The ’read’ is fundamental and an art form in itself. A putt can meander up and down and shimmy like a formula one racing car. It can suddenly slow down or accelerate, and indeed, it can even circumnavigate. It can follow the perfect celestial path across a green and hold us caddies in rapture and wonder.

However, the reading of a putt can be very difficult indeed. When I first started caddying I had nightmares about it. At the Castle in St Andrews it is a very tricky thing indeed, as the greens are so hard to read and can catch the best of us out.

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