Brutal stuff to watch. Obviously you can blame Kyle Stanley as he was the one pulling the trigger and could've done everything wrong on 18 and 99% of the time still would've won. But I have to fault the caddie a lot with what happened. Don't know much about him other than he's been on plenty of bags and is a decent player himself. But I thought there were many things that were brutal to see him do and could've done differently.
1) CBS mentioned he went up to Feherty or someone on the course and asked how many they were up on the back nine Sunday. They were shocked when his lead was only 3 instead of 5 or 6 like they thought. If Kyle is a scoreboard watcher, which it sounds like he is how were they so far off. Maybe the player doesn't want to look at the board every two seconds, but the caddie sure as hell better know what's going on.
2) Cameras followed both of them down the 18th fairway and with Kyle still yet to hit his third shot and ultimately clinch the tourney, the caddie starts waving into the lens and saying hi to his family back home. It's one thing if the player wants to do this or is comfortable with his position in winning the tournament, but for the caddy to take center stage all while his player still has an important shot to hit was ABSURD
3) I don't really have a problem with how they played the final hole. For what seemed to be a fairly aggressive player, the route they took down 18 would be consider cautious. I would have done it completely different, but either way all you're trying to do is make a 6 or 7 and take home the title. They clearly didn't have a plan of action though. He hit driver on the tee which was unnecessary unless, he wanted to blast his second shot over the water and into the gallery (a prudent and fine choice in my opinion). If he was planning on making it a 3 shot hole why wouldn't you hit a 3 wood or even driving iron? They then laid up to a very uncomfortable 80 yards. Anyone who plays golf knows that isn't a fun number whether it is a full LW or 3/4 SW, it isn't the ideal number to hit a shot over water. Then the drop from the rough at a different yardage was beyond belief. Yes that eliminates the spin which just resulted in you sucking it back into the pond, but almost guarantees you a putt of 30-50 feet past the pin.
I am almost certain Kyle Stanley will get a win and I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't in 2012. If I had to guess it will be with a different fella on the loop though. The kid obviously has plenty of talent and although he was the one who put himself in the position to win and then gave it away, I think his caddie did absolutely nothing to help his cause and possibly hurt his chances. Be interested to here others responses, especially competitive players or even caddies.
-Greg
