Storey playing key role as caddie and ‘psychologist’
Ryder Cup star Westwood has learnt to enjoy his ‘walks around a big green field’ with his fiancee carrying the bag
Lee Westwood says having his fiancee Helen Storey as his caddie “is like having a psychologist out there with me”. The pair met in 2015 through Graham
Wylie, the owner of the Close House Golf Club in Heddon-on-thewall to whom Westwood is contracted. Wylie is married to Helen’s sister, Andrea.
Storey, 43, is a fitness consultant and her love of working out has clearly helped Westwood. At their first event as player and caddie, the 2017 Abu Dhabi Championship, Westwood shot an opening 68.
As soon as he had finished with the media, Storey said to Westwood: “Right, let’s now go to the gym.” Westwood later revealed: “That shocked me. At first I thought she said, ‘Right, let’s now go for a gin’. That’s what I usually do.”
Storey, whose real passion is horse riding, ended up caddying for Westwood at that Abu Dhabi tournament four years ago after longtime bagman, Billy Foster, was called home because of a family bereavement. Westwood fared well, finishing in a tie for eighth.
The next year, Storey stepped in when Foster again took time off. Westwood went on to finish in a tie for second in Denmark and then, two months later after Westwood and Foster split for good, Storey was in his corner when he ended a 4½-year wait for a win in Sun City.
At that stage, Westwood was planning to rotate the caddying duties, between Helen and his son, Sam, when his studies allowed.
Westwood has also used regular Tour caddies, including Dom Booth and James Baker when necessary. The latter was with Westwood when he won in Abu Dhabi last year, a victory that propelled him towards his first European Tour order of merit title in 10 years.
However, Storey’s status has been increasingly seen as semi-permanent and the duo were together for most of the Tour’s “bubble” events.
Westwood works out his own yardages and decides which club he uses. It was the control he was seeking when he and Foster parted company. To assist him, Westwood has the yardage each of his club usually
‘Helen doesn’t know too much about golf, but she knows a lot about how my mind works’
travels stamped on the bottom of the face of each iron.
“She doesn’t know too much about golf, but she knows a lot about the way my mind works, so she keeps me in a good frame of mind, and focused on the right things at the right times,” Westwood says.
“There’s more to caddying than working out the yardages and checking the wind. I enjoy doing all those things myself. I have to get things clear in my own mind.
“It is like having a psychologist out there with me. She’s just incredibly good at bringing me back to reality. She’ll ask me about a shot, I’ll give this complicated reason of what I’m about to hit and she’ll say, ‘So you’re just going to belt it then?’
“And when I get carried away at a major, she’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s just another walk around a big green field’. And when you think about it, that’s all it is, isn’t it?”
Storey’s fitness qualifications are also crucial – and not just in ensuring Westwood does his gym work. A professional’s bag can weigh 50lb and Westwood said: “I wouldn’t want to carry it six miles in the kind of heat we sometimes play in.”
This sort of partner/caddie relationship is not unusual. Steve Stricker and Patrick Reed have both won PGA Tour tournaments with their wives as caddies, while Vicky Drysdale caddies for husband David on the European Tour.
But Storey could make history as the first wife to carry the bag for her husband at the Ryder Cup in September as they are due to marry before then.