Lauren Coughlin’s husband, John Pond, is on the bag this week.
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — John Pond was begging his spouse, Lauren Coughlin, to let him caddie for her full-time.
The former University of Virginia soccer participant had caddied for his higher half “off and on” through the years, most lately at a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier in 2023. After Coughlin break up from her longtime caddie after the Blue Bay LPGA in China in March, issues lined up for Pond to take over her bag.
“He had just quit his job to come out with me full-time,” Coughlin stated Thursday. “So I was like, ‘Okay, I will have you caddie for me Palos Verdes and then just see who I can get.’ I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll give you these three weeks. I’ll know after three weeks if we can do it.’”
The couple’s first begin of the three-week trial resulted in combined success as Coughlin missed the minimize on the Seri Pak Championship and T-Moblie Match Play, however earned the fourth top-10 of her profession with a T8 on the Ford Championship in between.
After a week off, it appears Pond has handed the check as he’s looping this week for his spouse within the 12 months’s first major on the Chevron Championship. Thursday, the husband-wife dynamic appeared to be clicking as Coughlin fired a bogey-free 66 to seize the early lead at The Club at Carlton Woods.
“There’s no one who knows me better than him, so just kind of keeping me cool and relaxed out there and calm and not getting too far ahead of myself at times or too down on something that happened before,” Coughlin stated. “I know he can do all of the things that I need him to do. It’s more just — we’ve never spent that much time together, so it’s just like can I do that, can I have the boundaries that we need to have to where we’re not just constantly about me golf all the time, which of course I enjoy that he cares that much, but it’s just like I don’t always love it always being about me and my golf game specifically.”
When Coughlin had begun wanting for a new caddie, Pond had simply quit his job to come out on Tour with his spouse full-time. She stated he’s been serving in a little bit of a “managerial role” serving to her make journey preparations and such.
‘Kind of our Caitlin Clark’: Nelly Korda speak of Chevron as she chases historical past
Jack Hirsh
There are different advantages, too.
“[We can] spend more time to get to travel the world and do a lot of really cool things that we might not get to do forever, and to do it while we still can,” Coughlin stated. “I used to be lucky sufficient place to the place we might do it, and it wouldn’t put an excessive amount of pressure on us financially or something like that.
“He was always like, ‘Worst case; If after a year we don’t like it, I can go back and get a job again.’”
On Thursday, Coughlin teed off within the first group of the day on the again 9. Their group set the tempo for a lot of the day earlier than coming to a “standstill” on the sixth gap, their fifteenth, once they caught the final morning wave group off No. 1.
That’s when Pond’s husband proved his worth.
“I feel like I got a little bit out of rhythm there,” she stated. “But he was like, ‘Hey, it’s fine, we’re in no rush, you don’t need to try to go too fast or anything like that.’”
Source link
