Those Ryder Cup hecklers heading to Versailles intending to upset Tiger Woods beware.
The warning comes after Woods’ caddy, Joe LaCava revealed an incident earlier this month during the final round of the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.
Woods was on the 14th hole on the Firestone course and competing in an event he’s won eight times in the past when an alcohol- fuelled heckler began irritating LaCava.
And as LaCava pointed out in speaking last week on an ESPN radio show, the heckler was not prepared to remain silent.
“This guy was outside the ropes and on the 14th hole he’s starting to rough-up Tiger pretty good and I said (to the heckler), ‘Hey listen, bud. Why do you gotta go there? Everyone’s having a good time, everyone’s pulling for Tiger. If you don’t like the guy, that’s one thing, but you don’t need to be yelling at my guy, screaming negative stuff like that.’
“I said at the end of the day that if you affect his performance, you also hurt my bottom line.
Tiger Woods and caddy Joe LaCava.
“He calls me a couple names and I go back and forth with the guy, and I said, ‘Why don’t you just leave?’ He goes, ‘Well if you give me $25 for the ticket that I bought today, I’ll leave.’ And I said, ‘Here you go, here’s $25.’
“So I whip out $25, and he starts to go down the 14th fairway towards the green and I said, ‘Look pal, 25 is 25, you’ve got to head the other way.’ So he starts to head the other way, he goes 20 yards down the line, and he calls me a certain other – a swear word.
“I run 20 yards back the other way, we’re going face-to-face with this guy, and all of a sudden Tiger’s looking for a yardage and I’m in it with this guy 20 yards down the line. So some cop has to come in, flush this guy out of the way and takes him out of the tournament.
“We were so far right of the trees for our third shot believe it or not, and we’re still 150-yards away from the green and Tiger didn’t really know what happened. He heard the commotion, he heard the guy yelling at him.
“We talked about it after the fact, and he didn’t really know how it developed and he said, ‘I was wondering what happened. He says normally you don’t take that long to get a yardage.’ I said, ‘Well a little incident down the road.’
“Tiger didn’t have a problem with it and actually I got a standing ovation for kicking the guy out of there.”
LaCava, who had caddied for Fred Couples for 21-years and capturing the 1992 Masters, reckons had Woods holed a few more putts in his PGA Championship third round 66 Woods could have captured a 15th Major.
“If Tiger had of dropped a few more birdie putts over that back nine on Saturday it would have made life a lot easier on Sunday but all-in-all it was great iron-play all week,” said LaCava.
“He could have shot 30 while 32 would have been realistic on the back nine as he had so many chances and that was the difference come Sunday.
“And with regards to winning a 15th Major, I can’t see why not. He is playing well. He has a lot of confidence right now and being in the mix of these big tournaments proves to him he can get it done and compete with these young guys that are all playing well.”
And LaCava was asked if he has any plans for the last week in September.
“No, I have for that week put it that way,” said LaCava smiling
“But I will be play the captain’s role here and say that I would like to think he will be picked. He is playing better than most guys outside the top-8 so come on let’s be honest. It’s probably a no-brainer.”
