A strong relationship between a player and caddie is often crucial when it comes to getting results. However, in the case of Lauren Coughlin, the American has her husband, John Pond, on the bag, with Pond taking up caddie duties in April 2024.
Previously, Pond had caddied for his wife in a number of events, including a US Women’s Open qualifier in 2023. However, when Coughlin split from her longtime caddie in March 2024, it opened the door for Pond to take up the position as bagman.
Speaking on Thursday at the Chevron Championship, a tournament that Coughlin claimed the first round lead by two strokes, she revealed that: "He had just quit his job to come out with me full-time”.
Coughlin then went on to add: "So I was like, ‘Okay, I will have you caddie for me Palos Verdes and then just see who I can get.’ I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll give you these three weeks. I’ll know after three weeks if we can do it.'"
Although Coughlin missed the cut at the Seri Pak Championship, she secured a finish for eighth at the Ford Championship, which was just the fourth LPGA Tour top-10 in her career. Missing the cut at the final tournament of the three week stretch, the T-Mobile Match Play, it seems that Pond has done enough to secure a spot on the bag.
A former University of Virginia football player, Pond gave up his job in fundraising at the University to take up the bag of Coughlin, with the pair meeting at an American Football Christmas party at the University where they lived in the same dorm. In 2016, Pond proposed to Coughlin after Cleveland Cavaliers claimed their NBA Finals victory over the Golden State Warriors.
Speaking at the Chevron Championship in 2024, Coughlin stated: "There’s no one who knows me better than him, so just kind of keeping me cool and relaxed out there and calm, and not getting too far ahead of myself at times or too down on something that happened before.
"I know he can do all of the things that I need him to do. It’s more just — we’ve never spent that much time together, so it’s just like can I do that, can I have the boundaries that we need to have to where we’re not just constantly about my golf all the time, which of course I enjoy that he cares that much, but it’s just like I don’t always love it always being about me and my golf game specifically."
