When you go to a caddie friendly course like Pinehurst Number Two, Pebble Beach Golf Links, or Bandon Dunes, the caddie gives you course advice, yardages, and help reading putts.
On the PGA Tour it is a whole different ballgame.
Sure you will see Tour caddies bending down to check the putting lines and consulting detailed yardage books. But the books they use are so detailed they almost read themselves, and there is no one a player like Tiger Woods trusts more to read a putt them himself. Yes the caddies carry the bag and give advice, but almost anyone with a solid knowledge of golf could do those
Think about it: at the level of the journeyman or unknown rookie, the caddie is the person they spend endless hours with behind the wheel on road trips, and they bunk up with in rooms at the Holiday Inn Express. For the top income players like Tiger Woods, the caddie is the only person the can talk to while trying to avoid a media full court press and often the person they spend as much (or more) time with as their family. These players are almost totally isolated from contact with anyone else.
I have met Tiger only once, briefly, and never met Williams, and I won’t speculate as to what caused their very public break-up. Williams could obviously do his job, but when you are a Tiger Woods, you need to feel 100% confident you can win, and anything that detracts from that has to go. It’s not a matter of being right or wrong, it’s simply a matter of how he feels, and he felt it was time for a change. After all, he has had only two real caddies in his entire career, less than the number of swing coaches he’s been through, and in retrospect, it might be surprising the duo has gone as long as they have.
In any case, the question everyone is asking is not why Woods sacked Williams, but who will replace him? Colorful Irish bookmaker Paddy Power’s, which handles some of the weirdest bets on earth, is laying odds on just this very thing. Only four days ago, right after Woods made his announcement, the odds makers at Power’s made former Sir Nick Faldo caddie Fanny Sunneson – the most successful female caddie in PGA Tour history – the early favorite at a prohibitive 6:4.
Interestingly, both Sunneson and her current boss, golfer Henrick Stenson, are Swedish, as is the former Mrs. Tiger Woods.
But the betting line is moving fast and furious. Since Friday, Sunneson has slipped to sixth on Power’s list, behind childhood friend Byron Bell, who actually won a tournament with Woods while “guest caddying” once before, and current favorite Paul Tesori, a former Florida Gator who played on the PGA Tour himself before switching to caddying a decade ago. In the interim he won nine PGA Tour events and two money list titles carrying for Vijay Singh before moving to Sean O’Hair. The longshot, at 500:1, is Woods caddying solo using a motorized “powakaddy,” but even at those long odds I would heavily recommend not taking Power’s up on this comical bet.
The most interesting horse in this race is sudden contender Colin Byrne. The Irish caddie and sometimes “Irish Times” golf writer jumped from 33:1 to his current second favorite status when he split with rising Italian star Edoardo Molinari over the weekend, Byrne has caddied for two Major winners, Paul Lawrie and Retief Goosen.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Woods, a well-known and probably justified hater of the media, took on a journalist as his caddie, even as his recently fired caddie is publically talking about penning a tell-all book about their years together?
Either way, as of yesterday, these were the Paddy Power’s odds on who would become Tiger Woods next full-time caddie:
While Macy’s is a storied name, its business has left much to be desired in recent years. Its net sales have been down throughout both its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores, and the company reported its third straight quarter of declines last month. The confluence of e-commerce, discount stores, the demise of shopping malls and a larger change in the way Americans buy things has not been kind to most department store companies. But this investor group, including real estate investment firm Arkhouse Management and asset manager Brigade Capital Management, has said they think the company is currently undervalued.
Where that value can be found is an open question. While Macy’s as a brand is valuable, it has something else: real estate. According to Evercore ISI analysts’ estimates reported by Retail Dive, Macy’s real estate could be worth $5 billion to $7 billion, with its Herald Square flagship in New York City worth $900 million to $1.6 billion.
There have been pushes for Macy’s to separate its retail and e-commerce businesses, and this reported bid could be the most aggressive offer of that strategy. The business might not sell at all; some say the premium is not as good as it could be. But what does the future look like for the department store business, and where is its value? Perhaps this season’s shopping numbers will help determine that.
