Welcome back to the NLU Mailbag. In this space, we’ll address topics big and small, smart and dumb, irreverent and serious. Please consider joining the Nest, where you’ll receive access to our message board, early access to NLU events, a 15 percent discount in the pro shop, an annual gift, plus a members’ only podcast and written work. Click here to learn more about the Nest and how to join. In the meantime, let’s dive into some questions…
James Townsend asks: Should Rory hire Bones? I know this feels like a First Take-level prompt, but it feels like they could actually be a decent match in dispositions (if Rory could accept actual input from a caddie) and would align with Rory’s all-in attitude to majors.
I always feel like questions about caddies and players are difficult to answer, as long as you’re being intellectually honest, which doesn’t always make for a good First Take performance. That’s why this is a better question for print.
I could sit here and tell you that Rory needs to shake things up and get a new voice on the bag, and that might be a very popular answer, but Rory might tell you that Harry Diamond is the reason he’s a more consistent player than he was a decade ago when he was winning majors with J.P. Fitzgerald on the bag.
I think we have a tendency to assume Rory is lacking something right now in his golf game, and that’s why he’s not winning majors, but a more nuanced take might be that the rest of the world simply caught up to where Rory was in his 20s. A commitment to fitness is now the norm in professional golf, not an outlier. Remember when Brandel Chamblee used to get on Rory for lifting weights too much? Now everyone does speed and strength training. I’m sure this will sound to some like I’m making excuses for Rory, but I think it’s reality. His driving was such an advantage back in 2014, and while it remains an advantage, the gap is way smaller.
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In 2014, Rory’s Strokes Gained: Off The Tee was +1.367, by far the best on the PGA Tour. Bubba Watson was second with +0.967. In the Shotlink era, it’s the second-best driving performance ever. Only Watson’s 2012 number (+1.485) was better.
In 2019, his SG: Off The Tee number was +1.195, again the best on Tour, and way ahead of the next best driver of the ball, Jhonattan Vegas, at +0.753. (It’s actually fair to wonder why he went 0-4 in majors this year.)
But he’s never had that kind of advantage again. In 2023, for example, he finished 3rd in SG Off The Tee (+.907) trailing both Scottie Scheffler (+1.021) and Ludvig Aberg (+0.982). He’s still one of the world’s best drivers, but the rest of the world closed the gap.
The common refrain when people talk about Rory needing a new caddie goes: I know Bones could save him a stroke a round, and that’s the difference between winning majors and not winning majors. That might be true — no way to prove it is or isn’t without actually putting Bones on the bag — but one of the reasons Rory didn’t continue his torrid major pace is because he stopped having such a two or three-stroke advantage off the tee.
Would Bones want to caddie for Rory? Hard to say. If they did join forces and win a handful of majors, it would solidify their legacies as two of the best at their jobs. But Bones, who turns 60 next year, might not want that life anymore.
Would you fire your best friend if it meant you might win another major? It’s easy to say when it’s not your best friend. It’s not like they haven’t been close. We can point to three majors in the last two years and say that Rory and Harry could have won all three had a break gone their way.
One thing that’s fun to think about too: What if Phil Mickelson had fired Bones in 2003, convinced it was going to get him over the hump? Phil and Bones were 0-46 together before they won the Masters in 2004.
Right now, Rory and Harry are 0-27.
I am confident Rory doesn’t blame any of that drought on Harry. Would a change make a difference? I don’t know. I do think if Rory wants to try something new and Bones is interested, they ought to commit to it in the offseason and build toward Augusta. That feels like a better recipe for success.
On the flip side, if Rory does win a major with Harry on the bag, I have to imagine it would be tremendously rewarding to do it with your lifelong best friend. Part of Rory’s endless dilemma is he wrestles with being human and being ruthless. He’ll probably wrestle with that as long as he’s a great player.
Michael S. asks: If these players never won another major, how would you rank them from least to most disappointed that they "only" won one major: Adam Scott, Jason Day, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk.
Very interesting question. That is a list of tremendous ball-strikers. It is hard to believe, having lived through all their careers, they each won just one major. I feel comfortable saying I don’t think any of them wins a second at this point. Just to set some ground rules, I can’t really rank their level of personal disappointment, only my own disappointment in wishing we’d seen more from them. So from most disappointed to least, here goes:
- Scott: His existence is proof that no one in life can be blessed with everything. A great guy with a great swing, a sharp dresser who looks like a Hollywood actor, think about how different his legacy would be if he was just an average putter. Everyone remembers that he threw away his chance at Royal Lytham with four bogies in the final four holes, but as reader Peter Coyle reminded me recently, he probably could have won the Open Championship at Muirfield the year Mickelson won. He made four birdies in five holes to get to -2 under, then bogeyed four consecutive holes to let Phil waltz to victory. He had a share of the lead on the back 9 at the 2015 Open, and played his final five holes in 5-over. He was tied for the lead on the back nine at the 2011 Masters, but failed to birdie either Par 5 and finished two shots behind Charl Schwartzel. It seems silly to fault a guy who shot 67 on Sunday in the final group, but at the 2018 PGA Championship, he was tied with Brooks Koepka at -14 standing on the 15th tee, and Koepka beat him by three. His career is a series of What Ifs.
- Rose: Giving him the nod over Sergio here mainly because he was the No. 1 player in the world at one point, a ranking Sergio never achieved. It seems strange he didn’t give himself more chances, particularly in U.S. Opens. His game seemed perfect for them.
- Sergio: Without his Masters victory, he’d go down as one of the most disappointing players of any era. But winning one green jacket — even if he needed an assist from Rose’s terrible drive in a playoff to get it — erases a lot of disappointment.
- Day: I have mixed feelings about this ranking. Injuries played a role, but he also built a swing around an approach that was never going to be sustainable. Of all these names, he seems like the one guy who could still bag another so we may need to revisit this list.
- Stenson: A truly great ball striker at his peak who also had periods where he was completely lost. That he owns perhaps the greatest performance in the history of majors makes you feel like he was capable of more, but his overall body of work makes it seem like that was a transcendent week and not who he really was.
- Furyk: Should he have won more majors? Probably. The 2006 U.S. Open and 2012 U.S. Open come to mind. But I would argue Furyk got a lot out of his talent.
Jeff from Saskatchewan asks: Would the PGA Tour be more entertaining if they got rid of caddies? Surely the world's best golfers are capable of course management, club selection, green reading, etc. on their own. What other professional athletes get an assistant advising them on every shot? As a viewer, I'd like to see not only who can execute the best shot, but who can make the best strategic decision on their own. And maybe less deliberation over every shot would speed the game up too.
I think, in general, golf would be more fun if there were experimental weeks like this, where players had to carry their own bags or they had to play with persimmons. Another reader asked this week if rounds would be more interesting if no one got to see the course beforehand, no practice rounds, just have to react in the moment. (I haven’t asked him, but I have to think th
Source: https://nolayingup.com/blog/kvv-mailbag-one-time-major-winners-training-aid-update-and-more
