The job description for Tiger Woods’ caddie apparently now includes going to great lengths to defend the 14-time major champion from verbally abusive fans.
Joe LaCava, Woods’ caddie since 2011, got so fed up with one persistent heckler following Woods during the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, a tuneup before last weekend’s PGA Championship, he approached the spectator looking for answers. And initially, LaCava thought he had one in the form of a simple payoff.
“I said, ‘At the end of the day if you affect [Woods’] performance here, it affects my bottom line,” LaCava said Wednesday of his interaction with the fan on ESPN Radio’s “Golic and Wingo.”
“So he calls me a couple names and I go back and forth with the guy, and I said, ‘Why don’t you just leave?’ And he goes, ‘Well, if you give me the $25 I paid for a ticket today, I’ll leave.’ So I go, ‘Here you go. Here’s $25.’”
Without asking any more questions, LaCava said he pulled $25 in cash out of his wallet and handed it to the fan. But instead of turning around to leave the Firestone Country Club, the heckler headed toward the 14th green, where Woods and LaCava would soon be.
“I said, ‘Look pal, $25 is $25, you gotta head the other way,’” LaCava recalled. “So he starts to head the other way — he goes about 20 yards down the line — and he calls me a certain other swear word. … And all of a sudden Tiger’s looking for yards and I’m in it with this guy 20 yards down the line.”
After LaCava ultimately got security to eject the fan from the course, he returned to Woods’ bag and received gestures of approval from both Woods and the crowd.
“He didn’t have a problem with it,” LaCava said of Woods. “And actually, I got a standing ovation for kicking the guy out of there.”
Though Woods, 42, finished 15 shots off the lead during the tournament, he bounced back in a big way at the PGA Championship, shooting a 64 in the final round to finish in second, two shots behind champion Brooks Koepka.
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