Jack Hirsch/Golf
Rochester, NY – It was cold, it was humid and there was no end in sight. The third round of the PGA Championship started Saturday as a flat.
Professional golfers know the drill now: Throw on a rain suit. Get an umbrella. Hang a towel to keep it dry. Maybe switch to a rain glove.
But as for the wheels, the work was just beginning.
On the fourth hole, after Rory McIlroy holed a second putt from the rough, caddy Harry Diamond handed his man an umbrella. Rory went, but Diamond stayed behind, carefully drying his iron and stuffing a towel under the hood to protect McIlroy’s clubs.
A volunteer offered to hold an umbrella over the Diamond as he prepared to take McIlroy’s staff bag—stuffed to the brim with extra rain gear, towels, and absorbent water weight—to the next shoot.
“I wish I had an extra arm,” Diamond said with a smile.
On the day Oak Hill received nearly an inch of rain, the caddies were the ones to be trusted to keep the equipment dry and the players performing at the highest levels. This is no easy task – especially not on this golf course.
“Maybe they wish they had an extra set of hands on them,” said Justin Rose, echoing Diamond’s plight. “There are a lot of juggling games out there. I feel like they do everything twice as fast.”
While caddies are not allowed to hold parachutes over players while they take up their firing position, they are allowed to keep their man in cover until that point. On Saturday, the caddies kept their players dry for as long as the rules allowed. This delicate jig is essential for those who play it, but it means a lot of extra work for those who loop.
“There’s more teamwork involved there,” Rose said. “I’m just being more patient after the shot, not just racing the right way to my next shot, kind of going back into the bag, with the parachute in there, making sure he has time to get the club back into the bag again.”
Once it’s time to stroll down the trail, though, it’s the player who takes the umbrella. In the extra time needed to move the putter into a rain-protected golf bag, caddies usually get soaked.
“How good he is at keeping the bag dry is very, very important, so I can just take the umbrella and go,” John Rahm said of his jumper Adam Hayes. “He sacrifices. He must have about 35 pounds of water on him now. You know, it’s the little things I probably don’t realize, just making sure the handles are dry, the club heads are dry and he positions himself to help me as much as possible.”
One notable sacrifice came while faking a McIlroy header at No. 15. After a few dry holes, the rain suddenly returned as he was preparing to hit his tee on par 3.
As the rain intensified, even harder than McElroy’s front nine, he retreated. Diamond was standing next to him with a rain jacket in his hand.
It is an act of thankfulness, for sure. But on Saturday at the PGA Championship, it was something to be thankful for. Ram seemed to agree.
“On a day like today, it will be more difficult for them, I say, than it is for us.”