Jordan Spieth’s caddie’s beer bet backfired badly. It also worked

ALBANY, Bahamas — Checking in from the Hero World Challenge, expensive readers, and with excellent news: I’ve obtained a terrific Jordan Spieth story to share with you.

Really, the story begins again in November 2017. That’s when Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, took off the week of the Hero to be at house along with his new child child, Ellie, forcing Spieth to discover a fill-in. His choice? Eric Leyendecker, his shut buddy and highschool golf teammate.

Leyendecker might not fancy himself a professional caddie, however no matter mojo Spieth and Leyendecker conjured that week proved fairly particular, as they wound up T3. That end result seemed even higher within the years that adopted; Spieth’s finest end in three begins since — every time with Greller — was fifteenth within the 20-player discipline.

So this spring, unbeknownst to Spieth, Greller and Leyendecker lower a deal that he’d return for this week’s Hero, giving Greller the week off once more. Eventually they crammed the boss in on their plan.

“It was actually Michael that brought him back,” Spieth defined after Thursday’s first spherical. “They struck a deal back in May and alerted me about a month and a half ago. He has the highest finish that I’ve ever had here at Albany, so we’ll try and improve on that.”

I met Leyendecker earlier this week; he’s a self-described 15-handicap lugging round an AT&T-branded stand bag and a cheery perspective. He mentioned he was coming into the occasion decided to construct on his glowing caddie resume.

How to finest pump up his participant? On the primary gap, Leyendecker examined his motivational tactic. For each birdie Spieth made, Leyendecker would drink one (1) beer that evening whereas he and Spieth, each large Dallas Cowboys followers, watched Thursday evening’s sport towards the Seahawks. That was a harmful proposition; betting on Spieth’s golf is like utilizing a stick of dynamite as a candle. But possibly it’s a caddie’s job to gentle a fireplace underneath his participant.

Shortly after the proposition, Spieth discovered the green on the par-5 third. Then he hit what he described as his finest shot of the day: a hybrid from 260 yards to “about a foot.” Uh oh. Now Leyendecker had a query:

What’s an eagle price?

Spieth grinned as he recalled his reply.

“I told him that in our games, eagles are usually triple,” he mentioned.

Thus started a four-hour journey of chaos. Spieth hit his tee shot to 14 toes on the par-3 fifth and made the birdie putt. He hit his method out of play on the par-5 sixth and made double bogey. He really made par at No. 7, getting up and down from a greenside bunker — however he wouldn’t make one other par for an additional 10 holes.

Things began to get bizarre at No. 8, when Spieth hit his method inside 15 toes however three-putted for bogey. But then he actually despatched the Leyendecker Beer Counter into overdrive. Birdie at 9. Bogey at 10. Birdie at 11. Birdie at 12. After canning a clutch bogey putt at No. 13 Spieth obtained again on the birdie practice with a neat up and down at No. 14. Then, on the par-5 fifteenth, he smoked driver 342 yards down the middle, hit a mid-iron to 60 toes and poured within the eagle putt.

Sorry, Eric.

After a bogey at No. 16 — life is all about stability — Spieth added a closing birdie on the par-3 seventeenth, lipping in a 15-footer and providing a delicate smile in his caddie’s path. A par at No. 18 was simply his fifth of the day to go along with one double bogey, 4 bogeys, six birdies and two eagles. That added as much as a spherical of four-under 68. By Spieth Math it also added as much as a spherical dozen beers for his caddie over the course of Thursday Night Football.

Post-round, Spieth added that he’d even picked out the model — Kalik, a neighborhood lager generally known as “the Beer of the Bahamas” — however admitted that he didn’t assume Leyendecker would — nor ought to — pay his debt in full. After all, the duo are only one shot off the lead after Round 1. He’ll want his caddie vertical come Friday afternoon.

Still, not a nasty little bit of inspiration.

“It worked,” Spieth concluded.

Dylan Dethier

Golf.com Editor

Dylan Dethier is a senior author for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, the place he majored in English, and he’s the writer of 18 in America, which particulars the 12 months he spent as an 18-year-old residing from his automotive and enjoying a spherical of golf in each state.