The Loop

Watson and his caddie: The odd couple

July 21, 2009

Tom Watson's caddie these days is Neil Oxman, a Philadelphia political consultant who founded the Campaign Group, Inc., which has done work for Al Gore, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and New Mexico Governor and former presidential candidate Bill Richardson, all of them Democrats.

Watson, meanwhile, is a Republican, who donated $1,000 to George H.W. Bush in 1992, $1,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2000, $1,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004, and $1,001 to the Republican National Committee in 2006 (according to opensecrets.org). Then there's this, from the Philadelphia Inquirer's story on Oxman from Saturday's paper: "Oxman, a staunch Democrat, called (Watson) an old-fashioned, WASPy, Heinz-Rockefeller Republican. . . . On some issues he's conservative, on some he's moderate."

A story by Patricia Murphy in Politics Daily, cites an interview Oxman gave to NPR's Robert Seigel Sunday night, in which he was asked whether he'd rather win a White House campaign or the British Open with Watson.

"It isn't even close," Oxman reportedly said." I enjoy this much more than having to deal with the guys who have ruined the country."

Presumably Oxman is referring to Republicans here.

Does this then make Watson and Oxman golf's equivalent of Mary Matalin and James Carville?

-- John Strege