Caddie Confidential Dishes And Predicts The 2019 U.S. Open

Golf anonymous surveys always deliver to readers.  A combined piece from GolfDigest’s Max Adler and The Caddie Network is a Caddie Confidential about this week’s U.S. Open offering its usual entertaining insight. The four caddies are shielded by  using Pebble Beach, Carmel, Spyglass and Poppy Hills as identifiers.

Is there anything that could possibly reveal a weakness in Brooks Koepka?

Spanish Bay: If Brooks was so mentally tough, he’d have a lot more than six career wins. As strong as he played the first 63 holes at Bethpage Black in the PGA, that was a bomber’s paradise. He only had to beat maybe 10 guys to win that tournament. He won’t be able to dominate Pebble Beach with his tee ball; he’s going to have 50 players running him down.

Poppy Hills: He’s calm, he’s confident, he’s tough, he’s playing well and he doesn’t get rattled, perhaps the most important armor for a traditional U.S. Open. That being said, we said the same about Rory McIlroy after his fourth major, and the same about Fred Couples and David Duval after their first (and only). There’s some witchcraft to this game, and only a handful of players in history have outlasted its mysteries. Can Brooks be one? Absolutely. But to say he’s impervious is folly. It shows a lack of respect for the history of this game.

What do players always get wrong at Pebble?

Spyglass: Distance control. Playing along the ocean at sea level with cooler temperatures and fluctuating wind speed and elevation changes—all this combines to make distance control extremely difficult. Pebble’s small greens expose who can manage it in a hurry.

Carmel: The ball travels 5 percent less than most sea-level places. Rarely see guys flying greens.

Who is a top player likely to miss the cut?

Spyglass: Bryson DeChambeau hasn’t been on form lately. Missed three of his last four cuts and hasn’t had a top-20 finish since the WGC-Mexico event.

Poppy Hills: Sergio Garcia. I don’t know if he has the patience to deal with Pebble’s greens. Oh, and he’s missed the cut in his last seven majors.

Spanish Bay: Tough question, but I might say Jon Rahm. Doesn’t drive the ball straight enough. That hurt him at the PGA, where he missed the cut by one.

How’s this going to be a different Tiger performance than in 2000?

Spyglass: He’s Tiger Woods, so you can never count him out. Not playing an event going into the PGA hurt him. He played good at Memorial, hitting those same little cuts off the tee he did at Augusta. But I don’t think he wins another major this year. He got lucky at the Masters by everyone making the mistakes they did at No. 12. I couldn’t believe the stupidity from Koepka, Molinari and others. Frankie’s usually mistake-free. You’ll see Tiger in the top 20 at Pebble, but there are too many guys.

Poppy Hills: Nobody’s going to win this event by three strokes, much less 15. Tiger’s performance in 2000 was the greatest this game has ever been played.

Your pick to win?

Monterey: Dustin Johnson. He drove the ball incredibly well at Bethpage and he loves Pebble.

Poppy Hills: Like Tiger, I’m hoping the USGA makes it old-school, hack-out rough, a half-shot penalty every time you’re in it off the tee. If the rough is playable, then it’ll be a guy who averages 320+ off the tee. But if the rough is thick, it’s a wide-open tournament. You will have to hit fairways, hit greens, be patient, be tough as nails and make six-footers for par on Poa annua greens. That being said, I’ll take the guy who won by 15 here once. Can’t remember his name, but I’m sure you can look it up.

Check out the entire Q&A. Worthy.