A rare caddie blunder — and recent policy change — led to one “awful” break for Tommy Fleetwood during the first round of the Open Championship on Thursday at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
Fleetwood, a favorite this week, opened with three straight pars and bogeyed the par-4 4th. He then drove into a pot bunker about 20 yards short of the green on the par-4 5th. That’s when the broadcast caught up with Fleetwood and on-course reporter Jim “Bones” Mackay, who relayed what he saw from the bunker.
“I’m not sure I have ever seen this before at a professional golf event,” Mackay said. “Whoever played from this bunker previously forgot to rake it, the caddie did. Tommy now has an awful lie, lucky to avoid the footprints that were made by the previous player.”
Open Championship policy change bites Fleetwood
While a mistake like this falls on the caddie of the player who was previously in the bunker, the timing is ironic and, perhaps, explains why the guilty caddie made the gaffe.
For decades, the R&A has stationed a designated “bunker raker” in every group at the Open Championship. These volunteers, the majority of them superintendents at local golf courses, take the raking burden off players’ caddies and help speed up play.
This year, however, the R&A got rid of that policy — caddies have to rake their own bunkers, just like they do everywhere else.
“It’s a change for us but we think a good one,” new R&A chief Mark Darbon said Wednesday. Asked to elaborate on the why, he said: “A number of factors. We just think it’s a good model for us here at Portrush.”
Fair enough.
That brings us to Thursday and Fleetwood’s second shot in the bunker. When he arrived to the ball he was, ah… not pleased.
“For f—‘s sake, man,” the usually mild-mannered Fleetwood said, which was caught on the World feed broadcast. “F—!”
From what the broadcast showed, the lie actually didn’t look too bad, although perhaps the issue was more with Fleetwood’s stance, which was closer to the previously trampled area. Regardless, Fleetwood’s reaction, plus the commentary from Mackay, one of the game’s most respected caddies and someone who got an up-close look, might be all the evidence we need.
“What a break for Tommy,” Paul McGinley said on the USA Network broadcast. “I don’t know what the rule is for the R&A, but certainly on the DP World Tour that caddie would be getting a big fine.”
Fleetwood’s second shot hit the lip of the bunker and barely cleared it. From there he chipped past the hole and had 33 feet for par.
“After what he’s been through on this hole you can’t help but root for Tommy a little bit here to maybe get this one to go,” said Mackay, as Fleetwood lined up the putt. “Just an awful break, one of the worst I’ve seen the entire year for him.”
Fleetwood missed and cleaned up a 2-footer for bogey, his second straight.
“It wasn’t a great rake job,” Fleetwood said afterwards, fresh off a two-over 73. “First thing is I was not very happy to be in there. That was the first thing, so that’s my fault. But yeah, things weren’t going well. It was like in somebody’s hitting mark that hadn’t really been raked great. I probably could have managed it better. I tried to hit what I thought was the right shot — like kind of duff something because I knew I couldn’t get any sort of strike perched on the ball — so I tried to duff it, but then you’ve got to get the height as well. So that was a bit harsh.”
While nothing has been confirmed, according to ShotView on The Open website, the last person in that bunker before Fleetwood was English amateur Sebastian Cave, who had hit his tee shot into the bunker about two hours earlier.
“Obviously it wasn’t done on purpose; it was a mistake for the caddie,” McGinley said. “But nonetheless it’s something the DP World Tour are very strong on.”
Fleetwood admitted he didn’t realize it was only this year the R&A got rid of the bunker rakers.
“I mean, still, you just rake the bunkers, right? It’s part of the game,” he said. “You don’t know what’s gone on before. I’m not going to hold it against anyone too much. You don’t know what was going on, you don’t know what was happening in that moment. I’m not going to get angry about anyone where you don’t know what’s happening, but it wasn’t great, and yeah, bunker rakers would have been nice.”
