Chipping on green champ’s specialty
Caddie provides insight into crucial shot by winner Woodland at U.S. Open
“I can’t putt this, can I?”
Not exactly the question you want to be asking your caddie on the green while trying to hold onto the lead at the 71st hole of the U.S. Open. But that’s what Gary Woodland said to Brennan Little when they got to his ball on the 17th green June 16 at Pebble Beach.
Woodland and his Canadian caddie Little are back in action this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit and aside from a phone full of texts and some congratulations from his peers, it’s back to business.
“It’s funny how it’s a couple days of congratulations and then you’re right back at it,” said Little, who was Mike Weir’s caddie for all of his PGA wins, including the 2003 Masters.
Woodland and Little are looking ahead, but we asked the 49-yearold caddie from St. Thomas, Ont., to take us back to the 17th green at Pebble Beach and walk us through the most memorable shot of the U.S. Open, one Woodland had already pulled off a few days earlier.
“He had that same shot early in the week on the same hole,” Little said. “The pin was kind of tucked on the left side of the green, but on the right edge and he hit it right again and he had to chip it.”
Chipping on the green is not advised for 99.9999 per cent of golfers. Give it a try on the weekend and you might end up on YouTube running away from your local course’s superintendent as he tries to run you down with a mower. But among the 0.0001 per cent of golfers who have the skill and end up in the position where they need to execute the delicate shot, none could be more prepared than Woodland.
“He’s hit that shot a lot,” Little said. “He used to work with a guy in Dallas, they used to chip off the greens a lot for contact, so it’s not like he hadn’t done that before.”
Woodland — a multi-sport athlete in high school — originally attended university on a basketball scholarship before transferring and switching to golf his sophomore year.
“When I started to transition into golf, I started working with Randy Smith — (in) 2005, I believe — and the short game was really what was really bad, to be honest with you,” Woodland said in Pebble Beach, Calif., after his win. “And so my whole deal was I had to hit chips off putting greens all the time and there were some times where superintendents weren’t a huge fan of me. But I’ve hit a lot of chip shots off putting greens.”
The 35-year-old Woodland had a two-shot lead with two holes to go, but when his tee shot at Pebble Beach’s famous par-three 17th found the far right side of the green, there was no way to putt and have it stop near the hole on the severely sloped green. Had Woodland decided to putt instead of chip, a good putt would have finished 15 feet from the hole, according to Little.
“There was no looking back,” Little said.
Woodland clipped it off the putting surface perfectly and nearly holed the chip, leaving a gimme par putt and taking the all-important two-shot lead to the final hole.