Armchair pundits like me were laid out flat during the final round of the BMW PGA Championship.
Embedded into my cushions, I saw Manuel Elvira standing on the 18th tee at Wentworth on Sunday, needing a birdie to win Europe’s flagship event.
Having just made an eagle to tie clubhouse leader J.J. Spaun, he hit an iron off the tee and attempted to play the par-5 18th on the West Course as a three-shotter.
His lay-up inexplicably went in a fairway bunker, his third flew the green, and his fourth plopped in a greenside sand trap – adding up to a double-bogey seven. It was desperately sad for Elvira, and an ending filled with anxiety when in position to win.
Swapping the armchair for my desk this morning, I messaged a few acquaintances from the caddie world, as Elvira’s looper, Carlos Gonzalez, came under scrutiny online.
‘Why did his caddie let him hit an iron off the 18th tee?’
‘Why didn’t he tell him to hit driver?’
‘Why choose a club that allows you to lay up in a bunker?’
These are questions I saw on social media, adapted in a less sweary fashion. I’ll admit they crossed my mind, too, which is why I sought expert insight.
One mightily experienced tour caddie, who I can’t name because he is secret, passionately defended Elvira’s tactics on 18.
“The temptation here might be to lump on the caddie. But for me, anybody who does that is just lazy, and pretty ignorant,” he told me.
“Here’s the reality of the situation. The tactics on the final hole were absolutely fine. You’ve got a player whose tendency is a draw pattern, and that hole sets up for a big fade.
“If he hits 3-wood off the tee with the wind off the right, he would bring the fairway bunkers into play, so they go ahead with an iron.
“He executed that perfectly. The wind is off the right too for the second shot, so going in there with a wood is not the play. Manuel’s got a really good wedge game, so laying up to the middle of the fairway with the second shot is the right play.
“And no matter how you try and lay up there, that bunker is always in play, as is the water. It’s not an easy lay-up. With Manuel being a draw-biased player with the wind off the right, he probably just overcooked it. Indeed, in his interview, he admitted that.
“Had he finished in the middle of the fairway with a wedge in hand, he likely/maybe gets it up and down to that flag.
“Even when the player has the opportunity to throw the caddie under the bus, and he doesn’t, then that’s a sign that it was in fact the player making a bad swing, absolving the caddie of blame and any lazy pile-ons.
“Overall, another example of what the majority of people outside the ropes don’t realise – these players have tendencies, and that not everyone can move the ball both ways.”
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What do I think, you ask? I have no idea what to think. Elvira had just made an eagle on 17 to tie Spaun with one hole left. I expected to see him ride this momentum and hit driver. The 30-year-old hit an iron instead.
I can just about meet him there, but the next shot calls his general approach to the 18th into question, and so too his caddie’s role. Even from our living rooms, we can ask why Elvira and Gonzalez decided that hitting an iron that could remotely flirt with the fairway bunker was the correct option. That’s fair, isn’t it?
Another experienced caddie, who has just carried in the first stage of the gruelling DP World Tour Q-School, told me it is ultimately the player’s decision on what club they hit. He relayed a story to me:
At the start of September, when Q-School was at Huddersfield Golf Club, one competitor had 100 yards left to the pin, from a good lie in the rough. Finding the green and two-putting would’ve seen the player qualify for the next stage, but the player and caddie couldn’t decide between hitting a pitching wedge or a 50-degree wedge.
The caddie was in on pitching wedge, as the player had been ‘ballooning’ his 50′ all day. The pitching wedge it was, and the shot sailed through the back of the green. The player had short-sided themselves, failed to get up and down, and missed the cut by a solitary shot.
Who is to blame in that situation? If a player isn’t happy about the club in their hands, surely they shouldn’t begin their backswing? As it goes, the duo worked well together all week, and continue to do so on the Asian Development Tour.
The caddie blame game is definitely a thing, and has been for a while. Not that he might listen to it, but Harry Diamond has had shots fired his way when Rory McIlroy came up short at major championships during his winless streak between 2015 and 2025.
After McIlroy lost to Bryson DeChambeau in a pulsating battle at the 2024 US Open, NBC golf analyst Smylie Kaufman said Diamond should’ve ‘stepped in’ on the par-3 15th hole, when McIlroy missed the green and made a bogey.
Kaufman said McIlroy hit the wrong club when speaking on the Subpar podcast. Renowned coach Hank Haney also said if Steve Williams had been caddying for McIlroy, Tiger Woods’ long-time looper, he wouldn’t have made that mistake.
Unless we hear player-caddie conversations, or either speaks about it afterwards, it is almost impossible to know how much a player has been swayed by their caddie’s opinion.
The caddie from Q-School enlightened me somewhat about a sequence that can typically play out: a caddie gives the player their data and notes of the golf course, the player will suggest the club and shot shape, the caddie will then agree or disagree, and a conversation begins.
But, the player makes the call. I think that is a sensible conclusion.
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