A PGA Tour caddie has revealed an awkward moment when he distracted Rory McIlroy during the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
McIlroy was attempting to claim the title for the second successive year alongside Shane Lowry in the unique team event at TPC Louisiana, with the pair playing alongside Kevin Chappell and Tom Hoge in the opening two rounds.
That was, overall, likely a memorable occasion for Chappell’s caddie Derek Anderson. That’s because the chance to get an up-close glimpse of McIlroy’s game came less than two weeks after he joined golfing immortality by completing his career Grand Slam at the Masters. Meanwhile, the opportunity came in the same month the former NFL quarterback took up the role alongside Chappell.
However, it didn’t all go to plan, with Anderson recounting to GOLF's Subpar podcast a moment that led to the inexperienced caddie distracting the five-time Major winner.
He explained: "I felt 5'1" tall. I’ll set the scene a little bit. Kevin hit that shot on 17 on Friday. Shane missed the hosel by an inch. I kind of walked back and I'm kind of not really sure where to go, because the flag was over there and Shane's chipping. I was like, 'I just want to go put this bag down, get my guy's putter. Let's get this over with.' So I go behind the green and Rory's chipping from the front-right of the green, right back at me.
"Michael Collins says something to me and I look down [to the side], I don't even know what he was saying and all of a sudden I hear Chappie (Chappell) yell from 40 yards away, 'DA, stop moving!'
"I was like, 'Oh s***.' I grabbed the bag and went right behind the camera guy and I just stood there and I froze. I thought, 'Oh my God, I don't even know what to do, what am I doing, there's all these people here.' Kinda freaking out. Meanwhile, Rory had stepped off the chip. Apparently, when I looked down I bothered him. And then he steps up and proceeds to lay sod over it, and I'm like 'Oh, no.' And then they made a bogey.”
To compound Anderson’s excruciating moment, he then found himself not just apologizing to McIlroy once for his error, but multiple times as they headed up the 18th. He continued: "As we were walking off, I tapped him with the putter like, 'I'm so sorry dude.' Going up 18, I'm just staying as far away from him as I could. I apologised to him like five times."
At least one member of the group saw the funny side, though. Anderson also explained that Lowry joked: "It took you two days and you finally screwed it up.”
