Mackay ‘the analyst’ loved experience, again
When famed caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay noticed his NBC broadcast schedule sent him home after wrapping up coverage of the Tokyo Olympics, he proposed an alternative.
Mackay, who spent 25 years on Phil Mickelson’s bag, wanted to travel directly to the U.S. Amateur Championship at Oakmont Country Club. After how much he loved his week at the 2020 U.S. Amateur at Oregon’s Bandon Dunes, he wanted to experience it again, even if that meant delaying his return home after the Olympics.
“And so that’s what I did, because as much as I love PGA Tour golf and other levels of golf, I really, really like this,” Mackay said.
The longtime caddie joined NBC Sports as an oncourse reporter in 2017 after mutually parting ways with Mickelson. On the broadcasts this week from Oakmont, he served in that capacity alongside Notah Begay III. In the role, Mackay still gets to share his opinions and insight — now for a television audience, not the golfers themselves.
Of course, the golfers in this week’s field know who Mackay is. They know he has a nearly unfathomable level of knowledge of every prominent course in the country and that he caddied for Mickelson, who has been a household name for as long as some
of these amateur golfers have been alive. While Mackay tries to stay out of the golfers’ way, he says hello to them, sometimes talks to them after rounds. He followed many of them earlier this week, then began spending more time with the same few as the field condensed to just two.
On Sunday, Mackay stood by as Michigan State’s James Piot won the 121st U.S. Amateur Championship, 2 and 1, over Austin Greaser of the University of North Carolina. By then, a sea of people had collected at Oakmont, crowding around tee boxes, following on fairways, cranning necks for a glimpse of balls on the green. The scene mirrored Saturday’s semifinal matches, but the weekend days stood in stark contrast to the small gaggles of family and friends that trailed pairings earlier in the week.
Greaser said after the semifinal matches that he had “never experienced anything like that.” Mackay, for all his years on the course, hasn’t experienced it much, either.
“I think it’s tremendous because it makes me think about when you watch golf on TV from the 1940s,” Mackay said. “I’ve heard these stories about how you used to be able to walk down the fairways with the players at the Masters,which just blows my mind.”
After a quarter-century of walking down the fairways at Augusta in a caddie bib, though, Mackay has seen the game change over time, now favoring power over finesse. Asked what advice he would give the golfers in this week’s amateur field, Mackay hesitated, then chose his words carefully.
“Well, I have to preface my answer by saying I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t want to ever sound like I know more than anybody else,” Mackay said. “But I will say this. The one thing that worries me about some of these guys is their short games.
“For any of these guys that want to play professionally,” he continued, “you do at times want to put your arm around them and say, ‘Hey, I love what you’re doing, love what you’ve got. But you have to understand something: If you don’t put as much time and effort into your short game as you obviously do hitting drivers, it’s going to be really hard for you to beat the best players at the next level.’ And a lot of these guys are going to figure it out.”
A few already have. Among the golfers Mackay said caught his eye with their short game this week was runner-upGreaser. While the North Carolina golfer came up short on Sunday, Mackay was especially impressed with a spinning wedge shot on No. 8 in Greaser’s semifinal match a day earlier.
“I appreciate the fact that he had the guts to try it on that stage,” Mackay said. “It’d have been so easy just to kind of bail out and hit something to 20 feet, but he took on the risk. ... I like that quality in a player.”
Another golfer whose chipping captivated Mackay’s attention was Alex Fitzpatrick of Wake Forest, who was eliminated by Notre Dame’s Davis Chatfield in the Round of 32.
In a more general sense, Mackay loves the strategy that goes into match play, loves that players check their opponents’ shots in addition to their own. And, he loves the course where it all took place this week.
Why wouldn’t he? The storied location, interactive galleries, weather, amateur golfers. Mackay sums it up in a handful of words.
“This is like golf at its finest.”