All it takes is a couple of minutes of listening to the most recent episode of GOLF’s Subpar to know that this week’s visitor, Tour caddie John Burke, is a superb cling.
With many years of expertise on his resume, Burke is filled with entertaining tales. He’s been on the bag for a number of huge names, together with Davis Love III, Brad Faxon, Tim Herron and Bill Haas.
But there was one story that was of specific curiosity to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz: an interplay that Burke had with The Great One, Wayne Gretzky.
“Have you ever asked for someone’s autograph during a PGA Tour event?” Knost requested.
“I know where you got that,” Burke stated with fun.
“If this is true the way that he told it to me, this is incredible,” Knost stated.
“It’s a true story,” Burke confessed. “Eighteenth hole at Pebble. [Davis Love III] and I had won in 2001, and our partner was Bill Russell.”
Burke then defined that Russell has been strolling on Love’s strains, and Burke had been tasked with making an attempt to maintain Russell at bay.
“I’m like 5’9-and-a-half, trying to box out one of the greatest of all times,” Burke laughed. “So fast-forward to 2003 and we’re enjoying with Mike Weir, and Wayne [Gretzky] is his associate.
“We were having fun with Wayne all day long, telling stories and everything. My step-son is a big hockey player, and really wanted me to get an autograph from Wayne, right? So I hadn’t done it all day long, all day long. And Davis pipes it down the fairway and, we’re watching, Tom Lehman makes a putt for birdie, and now we’re tied.”
“This is the last hole of the tournament,” Knost clarifies.
“This is the 72nd hole. S— is on the line,” Burke replied. “And I stated, ‘This is a great opportunity, because he’s over on the left aspect of the green.’ We’re on the precise aspect of the tree proper there, proper? So I’m going over there and I say, ‘Wayne, you gotta sign this for my step-son.’ You know, he takes one among his balls, he indicators it and the whole lot. And I flip it round, and it says 99 on it. I stated, why are you utilizing [Mario] Lemieux’s balls? [Laughs]
“Well, Davis is yelling at me this time, ‘You need to get over here!’”
“He’s hitting his second shot on the 18th at Pebble Beach and you’re over getting an autograph!” Knost stated.
“Tied for the lead, yeah,” Burke stated.
“At what point did you think this was a good idea?” Knost stated.
“Well you know what, he needed a distraction, because we were waiting for the group in front of ’em,” Burke stated. “You needed to think about something else. So I just went over, then we just discussed it with a 4-iron, he hit it to 20 feet and two-putted and we won the tournament.”
For extra from Burke, together with tales about Michael Jordan and Adam Scott, try the complete episode beneath.
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