A Tour Caddie Explains The Delicate Situation Of Rahm And Hayes
The best example when a picture is worth 1,000 words…
The John Rahm and caddie Andy Hayes expressions pretty much sums up what just occurred on Sunday at the Players Championship. Hayes valiantly (and correctly) tried to influence his boss to hit a safer shot from a bunker on the par-5 11th hole. Rahm wasn’t buying it and opted instead to attempt a high-risk draw from a sandy lie over water.
Oops. It cost him the lead, one that he’d never get back.
GolfDigest’s Sam Weinman enlists the help of another Tour caddie and Twitter lover Kip Henley (who loops for Austin Cook) to talk about that delicate balance between sherpa and boss when deciding strategy at an important juncture of the round.
“Ninety-eight percent of America looks at that and knows Adam was making the right call,” Henley said. “Birdie is great, but par doesn’t kill you, and a good caddie is able to look at the situation without as much emotion as the player.”
As Henley said, the odds are always stacked against a caddie when player digs in his heels as well. He says a caddie wins these arguments about 10 percent of the time, so at some point, a caddie has to contemplate caving. That’s what you’re seeing when Rahm starts explaining why he doesn’t feel comfortable laying up because it will leave him an awkward lie. At that point it doesn’t matter that Hayes is still in the right. He knows he can’t win.
“The whole time you’re fighting you better be aware where your guy is leaning because if you know he’s not coming over, you need to start backpedaling,” Henley says. “You then need to make him feel like it’s a good decision. Everybody does that. You read your guy, and you find a way to change your tune.”
“The one thing you don’t do is let it hang out there,” Henley says.“You remind him that he did what he thinks was right, and that it was a good decision. Maybe he lets it hang over him, but your job is to try to get him to turn the page.”
In the aftermath of the final round, after Rahm shot 76 to finish T-11, he was summarily criticized for his insistence on going for the 11th green in two. Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee called it the most “baffling” decision in Players history. But Rahm had his reasons, and said he felt confident over the shot until Hayes introduced a morsel of doubt in his head.
“When I first got to the ball, I was really sure I could do it,” he said. “If you give me 10 balls, besides that one, I’ll hit the other nine on land.”
It was mesmerizing to watch live. I was one of the 90% Henley said was siding with caddie Hayes. Rahm is young and quick tempered. Hopefully it’s a learning/maturing lesson for the Spaniard because he’s really good at golf.
