Thanks to Vittie Gomes and our great partners at Nike Golf I was given the opportunity to caddy for Paul Casey on day 2 of the Telus World Skins Game in Banff. Thanks V!! Day 1 saw a blue bird day in Banff but the morning of day 2 saw it rain as hard as you would see in the Rockies with- yes this is true- fresh snow on the mountains over night! The Pro Am in the morning was unfortunately cancelled so Paul and I were going blind in the afternoon I had played a few holes so overall no worries there.
I got to meet Paul for lunch before the round. He’s a big mountain biker and we chatted about Whistler and bikes- he has a few! He snuck up to Whistler Saturday for Crankworx during the Canadian Open to check it out and has riden here often. After lunch it was off to the locker room to get the bag ready. It was a caddies worse day. Heavy rain was forecasted so we loaded up the bag with everything he had. A brief meeting in the morning with the players, caddies and TSN regarding the back 9, a reminder about no foul language as everyone is mic’d up, that evenings travel and off to the range for warm up.
His clubs are pretty standard. Nike blades with a cavity back 2 iron, 3 wood, stock Nike VR driver, 10.5 loft, 73 Diamana shaft. Method putter, 52 and 58 degree sand wedges. Warm up was short and sweet. PC hits it DEEP. So does Jhonatthan Vegas. This kid is going to be a star. He’s still very young but once he figures it out he’s got the length and touch to be very good. Anthony Kim is just flat out skilled and can also move it. Lucas Glover hits a draw all the time and has a great sense of humour. He loved the two guys in the crowd dressed up as Santa??! and called them up to the tee for a photo. Steven Ames is also a great ball striker and was giving it to AK pretty good the whole way around.
Skins game courses are set up pretty short so it was driver/wedge most of the way around. Putts were lipping out from everywhere. The only tense moment was when the laser they gave us didn’t have batteries so it got a little tense for a hole or so until we solved that. Paul also had to remind me we were mic’d so the F bomb I dropped when the laser didn’t work wasn’t real popular!
Thanks again to Paul for being so accomodating and to Nike Golf for a great day. We didn’t win a Skin on day 2 so I think that’s likely the end of my pro caddy career but looking forward to hopefully hitting the mountain bike trails with Paul next time he is back in town. Thanks again guys for a great day! Thanks also to Rod Black from the TSN for the props during the telecast.
AK
