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By Mark Vigil

ALL CADDIES WATCHING THE PGA CHAMPIONSIP this weekend are encouraged to skip watching Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson or one of the young guns. Rather, carefully study the actions and protocols of caddies like Joe LaCava, Mike "Fluff" Cowan and recall the work of Jim "Bones" Mackay and Bruce Watson.

I offer this encouragement because today many loopers think they have deserved to be well paid because they toted a bag, scoped the yardage to the flag sticks and read a few putts.

This expectation would have Old Tom Morris rolling in his grave.

For those of you who have not heard of Old Tom Morris, he is the godfather of the modern golf game. He learned his craft at the heel of Alan Robertson, the Custodian of the Links at St....

AS THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP BEGINS, here is a look at A.W. Tillinghast, the man who created this year's championship course, Bethpage Black on Long Island.

Tillinghast was flamboyant in nearly every way, earning a million dollars designing golf courses across the United States in the Roaring Twenties. He outspent his vast earnings and was more or less broke when the Great Depression rocked the United States and the world.

The PGA of America gave Tillinghast a job that helped save himself and rejuvenate golf. The golf organization sent him around the country to help PGA pros improve their golf courses during a time when money was scarce. Driving a jalopy on primitive highways, Tillinghast visited more than 250 golf courses.

Jack Whitaker, the longtime CBS sports announcer, is the voice of Tillinghast in the video.

(H/T Geoff Shackelford)...

THE PGA IN MAY? I'm still not used to the idea. Nor will I be next year. I've been watching the PGA Championship in August since rocks were young.

I asked what others thought on Twitter.

"Good move," said one.

"Don't like," said another. "It means that the PGA Champ will never come to the courses in the midwest. Whistling Straits, Medinah, Oakland Hills, Hazeltine. It was 35 degrees last night here in Madison, WI, frost on the ground this morning."

The 2019 PGA Championship begins on Thursday at Bethpage Black, site of the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens.

The field has 156 players and is touted as the best field in major championship golf. The defending champion is Brooks Koepka. The winner will hoist the Wanamaker Trophy.

TV AND STREAMING COVERAGE

The PGA Championship will air on TNT and CBS. All times ET.

Thursday, May 16
TNT: 1:00 – 7:00 p.m.
'
Friday, May 17
TNT 1:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 18
TNT: 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
CBS: 2:00...

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This week's PGA Tour event got me thinking about golf great Byron Nelson. So I searched this blog for all the Nelson articles. What follows is from April 2007.

"I'M DISAPPOINTED IN MY TOURNAMENT, Bobby. It wasn't the same this year."

"I know how you feel, Byron. It's hard when all that’s left of you down there is your name."

"All of the finest players showed up for my tournament last year. They came up to me and shook my hand."

"Last year you were alive, Byron."

"I guess it turned out well enough. I'm glad Scott Verplank won. I've known him since he was a junior. He's a great kid."

"That was special."

"Bobby, do all the changes to Augusta National and your tournament ever bother you?"

"Sure, but you get used to it. They mean well for the most part."

"You're still a gentleman, Bobby."

"So are you, Byron."

"By the way, Bobby, what's that sound?"...

TIGER WOODS WAS AWARDED the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Monday at the White House.

GolfChannel.com reported:

MAX HOMA WON THE WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIP by three shots by making clutch birdies on a rainy Sunday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

It was an unlikely maiden victory on the PGA Tour based on Homa's recent woes. In 2017 Homa made just two of 17 cuts.

"I used to say when I hit rock bottom I found a shovel and kept digging. I went to some low places and there would be times when I would wallow [in self pity] and honestly just hate my golf game, dislike what I was out there in what's supposed to be my favorite place in the world," Homa said.

Now the Cal product is exempt and will tee it up in next week's PGA Championship.


Source:...

JIM "BONES" MACKAY was the longtime caddie of Phil Mickelson.

Here's Bones raking a bunker. The man obviously cares about his work. (Gary McCord provides the analysis.)

Mackay, who now works for Golf Channel, was inducted into the Caddie Hall of Fame in 2017.


Source: Caddie Jim 'Bones' Mackay and the Fine Art of Bunker Raking

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IF YOU'RE A JACK NICKLAUS FAN, or at least interested in golf history, you may enjoy Jack's "Letter to My Younger Self" that published a while back at THE PLAYERS' TRIBUNE.

In the letter there are details about his early life and career that I didn't know (or had forgotten). I wouldn't say I'm an authority on Jack Nicklaus, but I did study him pretty closely and collected extensive research in order to write my second book about the 1969 Ryder Cup.

The letter, written in first person, fills in around the edges of Jack's youth and more.

Nicklaus would tell you he had a strong work ethic similar to other golf greats such as Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. The following humorous anecdote from his letter speaks to that point: