MEET THE NEW FIRM
As Phil & Bones’s glory-laden pairing splits will Spieth and Greller be new golden couple
AS one famous partnership comes to a shock end one brilliant picture captured another most likely to replace Phil and Bones as golf’s golden couple.
The image of Jordan Spieth and his caddie Michael Greller body-bumping in mid-air as they celebrated a stunning holed bunker shot to win the Travelers Championship would have been terrific any week.
But that it came just four days after the dissolution of Phil Mickelson’s 25-year association with bagman Jim “Bones” Mackay made it all the more striking.
They were the seemingly inseparable duo who became as much a fabric of Tour life as buggies and big white tents.
You couldn’t have one without the other. Until now. For 563 PGA Tour events, 11 Ryder Cups and five Major wins Mickelson had Bones by his side – and the caddie was by no means a silent partner.
There are reels of video footage of the pair debating club selection, yardage and wind speed to the most minute detail –usually before Phil would just shrug, overrule his caddie’s cautionary words and go with the shot he’d been visualising from the start.
Sometimes he won big – like that legendary six iron through the pines at Augusta’s 13th hole which defined his third Masters triumph of 2010. The other times Bones would maintain his poker face while surely screaming inside: “I told you so!”
Yet that level of in-depth debate has been cited as JORDAN SPIETH admits he failed in his mission to play “boring golf” after he won the Travelers Championship by holing his bunker shot in a play-off. The Texan missed four putts inside 10 feet as Daniel Berger levelled after 72 holes.
Spieth said: “I wish I didn’t make it exciting. The aim was boring golf.” one possible reason behind their unexpected split.
An intense conversation during the second round of the Players Championship surrounded club selection into Sawgrass’s famous island green on the par-three 17th hole.
Phil liked pitching wedge, Bones preferred nine iron and eventually Mickelson compromised on hitting his wedge hard. Too hard, as it flew over the green into the drink.
To many observers now that moment in May could have been the sign of their previously unwavering confidence in their partnership beginning to rock.
Another train of thought is with Mickelson – without a win in the four years since his Open victory at Muirfield – approaching the tail end of his prime perhaps Bones is seeking fresh success with a younger, hungrier rising star.
Bear in mind this split came the week after the US Open – one of the most lucrative weeks of the season – that Mickelson had skipped in order to attend his daughter’s high school graduation.
Ironically, Spieth was one of those younger stars Bones had been linked with joining. But the evidence of Sunday night in Connecticut seems to kill off any notion of the Texan looking for a new caddie.
Spieth and Greller have been together since 2011 when this highly-rated kid from Texas rolled up to the US Junior Amateur Championship at Gold Mountain, not far from Greller’s home near Seattle.
Fate paired him with this sixth-grade maths teacher who moonlighted as a local caddie.
Spieth won the tournament, qualifying for the US Open the next year again with Greller by his side. The pair have been on a rapid rise to the top ever since.
Both men speak of it as a brotherly relationship and an investment in each other as a team. Spieth began the modern trend of golfers referring to themselves as “we” instead of “I” in recognition of the part Greller plays on the course.
So after the lean spell of the last two years without a Major win it was fitting he should celebrate Sunday’s success with Greller with such fervour.
A winning partnership who bounce off each other well in every sense of the word.