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SPORTSThursday 11 February 2016
The odds are high that Spieth enjoys Pebble Beach
DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP)
— Jordan Spieth rarely sees
a shot as impossible, some-
times when he doesn’t
even have a club in his
hand.
Walking off the 15th tee at
Pebble Beach earlier this
week, he noticed a golf
ball that had gone well
over the 14th green. Spieth
offered to throw it back to
the group behind him, only
that would have been too
simple.
“Give me some odds,” he
said to caddie Michael
Greller.
The challenge was to throw
the ball into the hole. He
was 75 feet away looking
down to a back pin on a
green that sloped severely
away from him. Impossible.
Spieth cupped the ball in
his left hand and flipped
it underhanded, high and
with backspin. It landed in
the rough, hopped onto
the green and ... missed by
a few inches.
He also wanted odds on
getting up-and-down from
a plugged lie in the bunker
to a short-sided pin at No. 8
(missed again).
Think back to last summer
at St. Andrews when Spieth
was going for the Grand
Slam. After his third round
Sunday, he engaged in a
tense duel with Greller on
who could throw a golf ball
some 20 yards away into
a carton on the practice
range (Spieth made).
It’s a way to laugh a lot
and keep it light, and a big
Actor/director Clint Eastwood, left, stands with his caddie
Nick Faldo, right, while waiting to putt on the 18th green of the
Pebble Beach Golf Links during the celebrity challenge event
of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, in Pebble Beach, Calif.
In this Feb. 2, 2015, file photo, country music star Jake Owen, left,
talks with his playing partner Jordan Spieth, right, on the third tee
of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course during
the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf
tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif. Some see this tournament
as a burden. The rounds can approach six hours because they
are played in foursomes with amateurs. Spieth, who has played
the last two times with Owen, says “This week, it’s so unique and
it’s so much fun.”
Associated Press Pebble will you see this on
part of the Pebble Beach about the celebrities, like
Pro-Am is all about that. the time Bill Murray tossed
Some see this tournament an elderly woman into a
as a burden. bunker. The weather can
The rounds can approach be dicey (not this week).
six hours because they Others see the Pebble
are played in foursomes Beach Pro-Am for what it
with amateurs. Saturday is — a week that brings to-
at Pebble Beach can be a gether the professional and
distraction because it’s all amateur game, sprinkled
Caddies lawsuit
Chhabria suggested in his
ruling that the caddies’
own complaint worked
against them.
The contract a caddie
signs to work a tour event
Associated Press says caddies are to wear
uniforms and identification
badges prescribed by the
tournament and the tour.
Chhabria said the caddies
in their brief acknowledge
that “the PGA Tour has re-
quired caddies to wear
bibs for decades.”
“In other words, for de-
cades, the bib has been
the primary part of the ‘uni- reviewed to determine
with the entertainment and
corporate.
Spieth played his first year
with Dallas Cowboys quar-
terback Tony Romo, and
the last two with country
star Jake Owen. Dustin
Johnson plays with Wayne
Gretzky, his future father-in- said.
law. And nowhere else but
a tee sheet — Tim Herron
and Larry the Cable Guy.
“This week, it’s so unique
and it’s so much fun,” Spi-
eth said. “I say that be-
cause of the pairings that
I’ve had now the last four
years. How can you not
have fun? But as we’re out
there — Jake will tell you,
he’s seen me at the hap-
piest and some of the most
... a couple of years ago I
was tied for the lead with
Jimmy Walker and three-
putted Pebble seven times
on Saturday.
“Yeah, that was a fun
round,” Owen said.
“So as much fun as we’re
having in between shots,
I’m here to win this golf
tournament,” Spieth said.
“And if we can win it to-
gether, even better. But
I would rather take a win
and us get second than for
us to win and me get sec-
ond.”
Spieth appears to have a
decent golfer at his side.
Owen beat him in their
match at Cypress Point on
Tuesday (Spieth gave him
nine shots). Owen, mean-
while, has been around
Spieth enough to see him
ask for odds and call a
shot, and every now and
form’ that the tour requires
caddies to wear,” Chhab-
ria wrote. “The only reason-
able interpretation of the
contract is that the cad-
dies agreed the tour could
make them wear bibs.”
Chhabria also found no
merit to claims of antitrust
and trademark law, along
with complaints of publicity
rights, and contracts were
signed under duress.
Richard Meadow of Lanier
Law Firm, which represents
the caddies, said the de-
cision would be closely
then deliver on his pledge.
Consider a charity event
in December in Owen’s
hometown of Vero Beach,
Florida.
“No matter where we are
on the golf course, the shot
always has odds,” Owen
They were in the middle of
the 13th fairway, 98 yards
from the pin, about 100
fans following along in the
fairway and 1,000 waiting
behind the green to see
the No. 1 player in Vero
Beach.
“He looks at me and says,
‘All right what are the
odds? I’m going to make
this,’” Owen said. “I’m like,
‘You’re 98 yards out in the
middle of the fairway.’
Without missing a beat, he
just steps up, hits the shot in
the air. He’s like, ‘Pay up.’
And I’m sitting there watch-
ing. It hits 3 feet behind the
pin, and with all these peo-
ple watching, spins back
and goes in the hole. And
he looks at me and I’m like,
‘This doesn’t happen with
normal people.’”
Owen said a plaque is be-
ing inserted from that spot
in the fairway.
“It just is kind of a way to
smile and say, ‘I told you
so.’ I’ve been doing it go-
ing back to grade school
with friends,” Spieth said.
“I think everyone does it
on the golf course. It’s just,
‘Hey, hole-in-one here, you
owe this.’ It’s probably not
going to happen. But when
it does, you get a good sto-
ry out of it.”q
grounds for appeal.
“We are, however, pleased
the court acknowledged
that the caddies are treat-
ed poorly by the PGA Tour
and hope that the tour
takes that to heart and be-
gins to treat them with the
respect and dignity they
deserve,” Meadow said.
The tour said in a statement
it was pleased by the deci-
sion. “We look forward to
putting this matter behind
us and moving forward in
a positive direction with the
caddies,” the statement
said.q