Forget Tiger, here’s the real comeback of 2018
In the story that is making us happier than any other story this week – Bones is back!
Jim Mackay, Phil Mickelson’s caddie for 25 years and now a Golf Channel pundit, has decided to come out of retirement for one week only to caddie for Justin Thomas at the Sony Open.
Thomas’s regular caddie Jimmy Johnson hurt himself at last week’s Tournament of Champions, with JT’s dad taking over the bag for the weekend. But Thomas Senior won’t be used again this week as the PGA Tour moves across across Hawaii from Maui to Honolulu.
Instead he will have one of the very best to ever carry a golf bag.
It’s understandable that all eyes will be on them this week – not only for this but Thomas is defending his title at a venue at which he shot 59 last year.
Not that he’ll be able to call on Bones’ local knowledge – he hasn’t caddied at Waialae Country Club since 1992 – a year before his new temporary boss was even born.
Bjorn sleepy
Elsewhere, on the other side of the world – kind of – in Malaysia, Thomas Bjorn is in charge of the European EurAsia Cup team in what is generally considered a decent captaincy warm-up for the Ryder Cup.
Ahead of the event said that he wakes up in the middle of the night sweating about the Paris showdown in September.
He said he used to only wake up in the middle of the night because he’d had two bogeys in a row in the previous day’s round.
If I woke up in the middle of the night after two bogeys in a row I’d never sleep. In fact, quite the opposite. I’d probably hold a open-top bus parade around the city.
Honestly, they don’t know they’ve been Bjorn. (Sorry.)
Polls apart
And did you see the YouGov poll this week “revealed” that golf is considered the most boring sport?
70% of those who voted in this completely pointless and rather irrelevant poll said they would describe golf as “very-slash-quite boring”.
Well I would say…
70% of those who voted in this poll have obviously never experienced the emotional high of punching one back onto the fairway from the woods. https://t.co/QRMi6lQOGg
— Alex Perry (@AlexPerryNCG) January 10, 2018
Joking aside, what are we learning from this? Golf is far too layered and intricate for the casuals to be labelling it ‘boring’. So I say, good luck, but you won’t change anyone’s opinion.
Is DJ’s mind his biggest asset?
Will 2018 be the year of the Tiger?
The year ahead: NCG predicts 2018
About the Slam
Founded in 2017 in a tiny green room in Leeds, The Slam, presented by Alex Perry, is National Club Golfer’s irreverent look back on the biggest news of the week from the golfing world.
It has since received rave reviews from the critics:
“This guy is nowhere near as funny as he thinks he is” – Facebook
“I wish he would get his hair cut” – YouTube
“WTF” – Twitter
“I heard him say Tiger Woods. Did he criticise Tiger Woods?” – Tiger Woods fans
“You look very handsome and I’m ever so proud” – Alex’s mum
If you’d like more musings from Alex’s little world, you can follow him on Twitter. Or don’t, that’s up to you. Probably best you don’t.
Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
