[12 piece bucket]

When you have done the work. Built the swing. Honed your touch, etc. The game is really played in the short time between arriving at your ball and sending the shot away. Besides knowing the answer to any possible question about the course, a good caddie provides an objective view. Careful analysis and observation gives the caddie a pile of data on which to base suggestions. While the player must monitor swing, body, feel, etc, the caddie is free to study the conditions. The caddie does not feel the emotion of having to pull off the shot.

For instance, it you can picture the last hole at Glen Abbey--Canadian Open--where Tiger hit the miracle shot from the bunker to beat Grant Waite. My player has hit a big drive through the fairway into the first cut. The shot is about 175 with a carry of 160 or so. I run the numbers and look at the lie and decide it's a nine. Now you could bail with a eight, but you will be it the bunker over and hitting a downhill bunker shot towards the water. Most pros will leave that shot 10 feet short for safety. So you have ended up with a 10 footer for bird with a nine iron second on a par five. Not how to get rich.

Now the trouble is that if the shot does not jump it will fly in the middle of the pond, and we will have to play from the same spot hitting four. Again not the way to get rich. I'm standing there sending telepathy and hoping my man reads the numbers the same way I do, so I don't have to have the conversation. He looks a me and says, "It's a nine isn't it?" Lucky me, but also I can answer that it's the only club I ever thought which--may have helped him. Ten fee=eagle. We came second to Sutton and beat the rest of the field by 3 shots. Another step towards winning which we did the next year at another event.

Point is: we were on the same page because that is what we did on every shot all day long everyday. When the shot comes off you add it to the data base. When it does not, you analyze what went wrong. Misread lie or wind or "the ball is really flying today" etc. If it was just a bad swing, you let it go because you are going to miss some.

The more you can think like this--almost detached--the more consistent you will become. A cold, crical, realistic view of your abilities with the heart to pull the trigger. Final thought-- sometimes all the math says eight-- but it just feels like a seven. Always hit the seven.

Dude! Fantastic stuff! What about picking targets? Nicklaus talked about playing the percentages and all that stuff. Do you guys do that too? It seems like to me the process y'all go through in preparing for a tournament that you could know more about my golf course after a couple of practice rounds than I would after 3 years of playing it. How do you figure out which spots to hit to and when to play safe and when to go?

Thanks for posting!

B