Guiding Tiger’s Masters victory
Newtown’s Joe LaCava comes home after helping Woods win his first major in 11 years, his first Masters in 14 years
So many memories, so many texts, so much tension and euphoria — yes, it is good to have a flag to plant in the ground of a sports world that shook on Sunday.
So that’s what Joe LaCava did. Tiger Woods’ caddie took the flagstick from the 18th hole at Augusta National.
“I’ve got matching ones now,” LaCava said.
He already had one from when he caddied for Fred Couples and Couples won the 1992 Masters. That one was difficult to secure.
“I came off the green and Pinkerton Security was there,” LaCava said Wednesday. “Their guy says to me, you can’t have this. It’s private property. I’m like, ‘nah.’ My reaction was Mr. Tough Guy.”
Mr. Tough Guy looked Mr. Pinkerton in the eye and said, “If you can take it from me, you can have it.”
The Newtown native still has the Freddie flag.
On Sunday, when Tiger Woods completed the most stunning individual comeback in the history of
sports, securing the flagstick was easier. Nobody gave LaCava a hard time. Still, Mr. Tough Guy had to look Mr. Woods in the eye.
LaCava, the genuine article, Mr. Not-So-Tough Guy, melted right there on the 18th green. Woods hugged him and yelled, “We did it!”
“I don’t know if it has sunk in yet what Tiger has accomplished,” LaCava said. “It has started to and it’s just awesome.”
After Woods won his first major in 11 years, his first Masters in 14, LaCava returned to his Connecticut home Monday night. He has done some radio interviews. He has hung out with his buddies. He has had a few beers.
It’s still awesome.
“Tiger told me walking up at 18, after he hit the chip on the green, that he saw his mom, his kids, Erica,” LaCava said. “He really got emotional at that point. He couldn’t stop looking at them. It meant so much to have his kids (who arrived Sunday) there.”
So here was Tiger, at 43, an imperfect man in the perfect place. He stood at the same spot where he hugged his late father, Earl, in 1997 after his first Masters victory. Tiger found his 10-year-old son. He picked up Charlie, dressed in the same red shirt and black cap as his dad, and gave him the kind of hug that brings tears even to the hardest of souls.
Woods hugged his mom, Kutilda. He hugged his 11-year-old daughter, Sam. He hugged his girlfriend, Erica Herman.
“The kids are very involved in school, with soccer,” LaCava said. “I don’t see them around a lot. For them to soak up that atmosphere
and be old enough to appreciate what’s going on, it was just fantastic. Charlie’s already into golf, so he can appreciate the golf end of it. Sam’s at an age where she just loves her dad. I was just so happy for Tiger.”
On the first tee, with words that became instant caddie legend, LaCava told Woods, “Intense, but loose.”
“Usually, if I’m going to say something, I’ll say it on the range,” LaCava said. “This time I said, ‘screw it, I’ll say it on the first tee so it’s fresh in his mind.’ People are running with it, thinking that it was the key. The key is Tiger is a great player.
“What I said is, I’d never, ever want you to lose your intensity. That’s who you are. But let’s be loose. Don’t take the weight of the world on your shoulders. Don’t put so much heat on yourself that you’re not hitting shots you are capable of hitting. The world is not going to end if you don’t pull this thing off today.”
They would be tested. There were back-to-back bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes. Woods said LaCava hit him with colorful words he couldn’t repeat, went for a bathroom break and repeated them to himself.
“That one is kind of between us,” LaCava said. “But as a caddie sometimes you’ve got to give your guy a little bit of a pep talk. He makes a great birdie on three and turned around and gave it right back. To bogey five is not the end of the world. Tough hole. But to bogey two in a row you lose a lot of momentum and you know going to six it’s going to be a tough shot with that back right pin. Tiger’s certainly not giving up, but (the exhortation) was just something to get him in the right frame of mind.”
It worked. There was a two-stroke swing with Francesco Molinari when Woods birdied at seven. And after Molinari put his tee shot in Rae’s Creek on 12 — the turning point — LaCava watched as Tiger, steely to his plan, didn’t switch out to a 9-iron for an 8. He also heard a Tiger not as steely at 16 after nailing an 8-iron with 18 inches of the cup.
“I’m thinking he is going to have the easiest putt,” LaCava said. “But he asked me to take a look at it. Tiger is not a nervous guy. I’m thinking, is this actually nerves? You’re asking me to double-check? I said, ‘Take a look at it? It’s a foot and a half.’ He goes, ‘Left center.’ I said, ‘Go for it.’ I never looked.”
LaCava, 55, is big Giants and Rangers fan, a good-natured man with no pretense. He received more than 600 texts after the victory. He jokes he doesn’t have that many friends. He may be wrong. Yet it is the texts he has received from Woods, words of compliment, how “we did it,” that he holds close. After all Woods has been through, the good, the bad, the ugly, LaCava is happy Woods is showing his generous side more to the world.
“I’ve seen that Tiger before most people have,” LaCava said. “He’s high-fiving kids, taking more time to sign autographs. He is enjoying what he is doing. I think that comes with age and his own kids. He realizes there are so many people out there pulling for him now. He has been great with people.
“Off the golf course, he had three, four dinners with (Justin Thomas) and a couple of the guys. One night with Jordan Speith. I think he enjoys that stuff now. He played in a foursome on Wednesday at Augusta. That had been unheard of. There might have been one or two max. He’s hoping guys will ask him to play practice rounds. He likes hanging with J.T., Bryce (DeChambeau), Rickie Fowler, those guys.”
One guy Tiger likes texting with is Geno Auriemma. “Geno tells is like it is,” said LaCava, also friends with the UConn coach. “Tiger likes getting advice from people who have proven themselves. It’s the guys who haven’t done anything who drive him nuts.”
Those guys already are arguing when Tiger, with 15 major titles, will catch Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18. The PGA is coming in May at Bethpage, the U.S. Open in June at Pebble Beach.
“I understand,” LaCava said. “Of course, you’re optimistic. We’re certainly looking forward to it. How could we not be? He has won (majors) on both courses, but it also was a long, long time ago.”
LaCava was hanging around as Woods finished up with his media Sunday. Tiger’s advisor Rob McNamara asked him to join the Woods crew of 15 to 20 at Butler’s Cabin. LaCava found himself at the Nike table of a Masters dinner.
“There’s probably 200 green jackets there,” LaCava said. “I’m unshowered, with this smelly, sweaty Saquon Barkley jersey on (which he had displayed under his open caddie uniform. I heard Saquon was pretty pumped about it. I will say this: Every single person at the dinner who came up to me was very nice. Some said they’d rather be dressed like I was.”
And with that, the genuine article gave out a good laugh. The flag is his.