Respect the Hustle
Players 2022: Caddie bikes seven miles to TPC Sawgrass to avoid traffic—only to find out his pro's tee time was moved
This is the rare week on the PGA Tour where we are not envious of the caddies. Most weeks, it’s good to be a looper—you get an upclose seat to watch the best players in golf—often with six-figure paydays if their guy wins a tourney.
At the 2022 Players, we're content with our life as a non-PGA Tour caddie. In the rain on Thursday and Friday, caddies were lugging a heavy tour bag along with rain gear, hustling with umbrellas for their players and navigating the crazy wind and rain.
Then there’s what happened to Geno Bonnalie on Saturday. The below sequence of videos finds Joel Dahmen’s caddie attempting to bike his way to where Dahmen is staying to get to TPC Sawgrass, with his guy set to tee off late on Saturday to start his second round. Of course, the pace of play is a little slower than what tour officials could’ve predicted. We’ll let Geno take it from here.
What an adventure, that’s rough. On the bright side, he'll have this story to tell his grandkids one day: 'You guys have it so good ... I once had to ride a bike seven miles in 30 mile-per-hour wind to the golf course.' He can show this article to the kiddos to prove it. On the other hand, this is not how we'd envision a day off in Florida. What a crazy week in Ponte Vedra Beach.
It’s tough to feel too bad for PGA Tour caddies normally. But this week, Geno, we feel for ya.
If there's a consolation for Geno, if the PGA Tour decides to start a caddie version of the PIP, he continues to cement himself as an absolute content machine amongst caddies.