Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest athlete to touch the game of golf. In his prime, the American golfer was a force to be reckoned with. And who knows it better than his long-time caddy Joe LaCava? The 69-year-old has a whopping 40-year career as a bagman under his belt, with 12 of them alongside Woods.

With this stellar career, golf fans will think the bagman would be an expert in reading the greens by now. However, there is one instance in which LaCava failed to perform at his best, and Woods holds it against him to this day!

A wholesome moment between Tiger Woods and Joe LaCava

Recently, the 69-year-old sat down for an interview with Golf.com. During the interview, a question about his best read came up. While sharing this story, the expert bagman kept himself humble and followed it by telling about his worst read.

via Imago

The story traces back to the 2019 Masters Tournament, which Woods ultimately won. But during the sixteenth hole at Augusta, the American golfer found himself in a tight spot. The ball had landed two and a half feet from the hole and he was thinking about how to sink it.

Naturally, Tiger Woods turned to Joe LaCava for assistance. But the bagman was taken aback by this request as Woods asked for it very late in the game. Instinctively, LaCava responded to Woods, “Listen, pro. Knock this thing in the back of the hole.” He also confessed he never went to read it.

This incident became a shared memory between the American golfer and his bagman. “He teases me to this day that I was afraid to read a putt at Augusta on the 70th hole en route to his fifth green jacket,” LaCava recounts. However, caddying for the legendary golfer is not an easy task.

LaCava on caddying for the American golfer

While this anecdote is a wholesome one, LaCava’s experience with Woods was always not smooth sailing. The bagman revealed the American golfer is thinking about golf day and night. He shared that Woods would text him “at 2 or 3 in the morning about a certain hole having a different wind the next day.”

via Reuters

Maybe this level of obsession with the game is a factor that propelled Tiger Woods to the heights he is now. And his trusted caddie Joe LaCava was right alongside him for the better part of the journey.