19th Hole

Caddie Corner: 14 questions with PGA Tour caddie Zak Smith (caddie for Martin Trainer)

Published

2 years ago

Apr 27, 2022

In this new GolfWRX feature, called the “Caddie Corner,” we’ll be firing off questions to a different caddie every week on the PGA Tour.

Caddies, or “loopers,” as some call them, are the too-often-overlooked people who actually have a huge impact on players every week on the PGA Tour. They’re tasked with many objectives – everything from carrying the bag, raking bunkers and getting yardages, to playing psychologist on the golf course as their player competes for millions.

If you’re curious to learn more about the caddies, as well as their stories, lifestyle and insights, then welcome to the “Caddie Corner.”

In this week’s edition, we spoke to Zak Smith, who currently caddies for Martin Trainer on the PGA Tour. Want to learn more about Smith? Give him a follow @lumberzak on Instagram or Twitter.

Now, let’s get into the questions!

First question is easy. What’s your name, who do you caddie for, and who else have you caddied for throughout the years?

My name is Zak Smith, and I currently caddie for Martin Trainer. I’ve caddied for multiple players throughout the years. I’ve worked for Sepp Straka, Nate Lashley, Chris Baker for most of my career, Michael Gellerman, those are the main ones.

How did you end up being a caddie on the PGA Tour? What was your career progression to get there?

I graduated college, I saved up some money, I drove to the nearest Korn Ferry event, and then I asked 150 players if they needed a caddie. And I got 150 no’s. Then I went to the next event, and I got a yes. Then a 1-week deal turned into another 1-week deal. Then 4 or 5 weeks later, I got Chris Baker, and I ended up working for him for 3 years.

If you didn’t caddie, what job do you think you’d be doing right now?

I’d be an assistant pro at a golf course. That’s what I was doing before I started caddying. Brutal hours, brutal pay, no days off.

What’s the best restaurant you go during a PGA Tour season where it’s like, you can’t wait for that tournament so you can go to that restaurant?

There’s really good Indian and Middle Eastern food in Detroit. That’s always a pleasure. I don’t know the name of the restaurants, but they’re all good.

What’s your favorite sport aside from golf, and who are some of your favorite teams and players?

My favorite sport other than golf is probably disc golf. There’s a professional league out there. My favorite player is probably Ricky Wysoki, he’s number 1 in the world right now. Other than that, that’s about it.

What’s on your music playlist right now?

EDM. Some people call it techno, but it’s remixes and stuff like that. Festival music.

What’s been the most important lesson you’ve learned along the way about caddying or golf in general?

Patience. I’d say patience is huge. You wait around a lot. You travel a lot, and you have to be patient with delays and stuff. You just have to take it for how it goes and move on. You can’t get all uptight about something changing in your daily plan because it’s going to change. So just patience.

What’s your take on the slow play issue on tour, if you think there is one?

I think they are really putting slow play under the microscope and it’s getting a little too…I mean I think it’s fine. I think the slow play is definitely a problem on the PGA Tour. But, I don’t think it’s as slow as people think. Sometimes as a caddie there’s a lot of decisions being made and sometimes that extra 15 seconds really makes or breaks the shot. If you do it once or twice here and there it’s not that bad, but if you do it on every shot then, yeah, it brings down the momentum on the whole group honestly. So that’s where it gets bad.

If you have that one slow player in your group, it just brings everyone down. Then yeah, it’s a problem. But I don’t think necessarily it’s a huge issue for most players.

What caddie is the most fun to be around on Tour whether it’s on or off the course?

That’s tough. Irish Dave is probably one of the craziest, funniest dudes. He’s been out here for however many years, and he has the best stories. Whenever you’re with him, you know you’re gonna be laughing and hearing some story you’ve never heard. That’s always fun.

Who’s Irish Dave? You have to explain to the people who that is.

He caddies for Alex Noren. He caddied for Padraig Harrington for a long time. He’s from Northern Ireland. He’s just a treat to be around. He’s a legend. Everyone wants to be like him.

Caddies are known for having the best stories. Without incriminating yourself too much, what’s your funniest story you have from caddie life inside the ropes?

I’ll give you a story. This was a couple years ago. There was a rain delay on Saturday, and we’re finishing on Sunday. We had to play, I think, close to 36 holes on Sunday. We were making our turn after our 27th hole, so our last 9 of the day. My player was complaining about being hungry, so he stopped at a food truck for the patrons and ordered a pizza. I had to wait there for about 10 minutes until the pizza was done while he teed off on the next hole. Then I had to run across the range, all the way across the other fairway, to catch up with him. I delivered the pizza. Luckily the guy who was making the pizza decided to throw in a free pizza. So, I had two pizzas in my hand, give one pizza to my player in the fairway, and the first thing he says is, “Zak, you didn’t bring any napkins? How am I going to get all this grease off my hands with no napkins?”

Then he hits his shot, hits it to like 15 feet, and he looks at me and goes, “I probably would have made that if I didn’t have grease all over my fingers.”

Long story short is we ended up going par-par-par-eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie. We shot 6-under on that 9. We went form like T44, to T14, and it was a good pizza. That was pretty funny. I’ve never carried a pizza down the middle of a fairway before in a big pizza box.

What’s your biggest, “Uh oh, I messed up” moment of your career?

Um, this was probably my first year caddying. I was caddying for a guy on the Korn Ferry Tour. We both walk off the number, and we both get the same number. He sets up, get the club right, hits the shot, and just lays the sod over it. He hits it fat. We’re like, “Ah great, this is going to be way short. It’s going to be a tough up-and-down.”

Then the ball lands probably 10-15 feet short of the hole and rolls up to pin high, like 6 or 7 feet. We both look at each other and we’re like, “What the hell just happened?”

We had both walked off the number wrong. Instead of subtracting, we added. We had the wrong number, but hit the perfect shot and ended up being OK. That was one of the times you’re just like, wow, that could have been real bad. We were off by like 16 yards.

What’s your favorite Tour stop to caddie at, whether it’s the course, or the perks, or the location?

Quail Hollow. That’s definitely the best. The Wells Fargo. They just take care of the caddies the best, and I live in Charlotte so it’s my home town. It’s always fun.

Last question. Based on working with PGA Tour players so closely throughout your career, what’s your best advice for amateur golfers trying to improve their games?

Practice your short game. I know it’s probably been beat in your head a lot, but it’s crazy how many times these pros get up and down from places where most amateurs would make double bogey, and the pros make par. That’s the big thing.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi: The 8 best prop bets for the 2024 Masters

Published

1 hour ago

Apr 9, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

We’ve finally reached The Masters and excitement is at an all-time high. The world of golf has been fractured for the better part of two years, but for a week at Augusta National, all of the outside noise will disappear. All of the best players in the world will be together seeking to make history.

RELATED: Vincenzi’s 2024 Masters betting preview: Niemann to play star role at Augusta National

In addition to betting on The Masters champion. This is one of the few weeks of the year where there are so many more markets to explore, with value to be had in plenty of different categories.

Throughout this article, I’ll discuss all of my favorite props and players for the 2024 Masters.

Placement Bets:

Tony Finau Top 5 +750 (DraftKings):

I badly wanted to include Tony Finau in my outright betting selections, but I simply ran out of room on my card. Additionally, it’s slightly difficult to see him hitting the putts necessary to win the Masters on back nine on Sunday. However, I do strongly believe he will play great golf this week at Augusta National.

In his past 24 rounds, Finau ranks 4th in Strokes Gained: Approach is always amongst the best drivers of the golf ball in the game. Back in 2019, Finau had a great chance to win The Masters. I expect him to be hanging around over the weekend once again in 2024.

Gary Woodland Top 20 +550 (DraftKings), Gary Woodland to make the cut -110 (DraftKings):

Last season, Gary Woodland had his best ever finish at The Masters in his eleven tries. The 39-year-old finished T14 and played incredibly steady across all four rounds.

In Woodland’s most recent start at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, he struck the ball incredibly well. He led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach (+8.8) and Strokes Gained: Ball Striking (+10.0).

Gary has been working with Butch Harmon and absolutely flushing the ball both in tournaments and during practice.

Woodland appears to be healthy once again and in a great place physically and mentally. If he can build off his impressive performance at Augusta last year, he can place inside the top ten in 2024.

Additionally, the make the cut number on Woodland seems generous considering the number of players who miss the cut will be relatively small this week. Woodland is striking it well enough to make the cut even if he’s hindered by a balky putter once again.

Thorbjorn Olesen Top 20 +400 (FanDuel):

The Thunder Bear, Thorbjorn Olesen, made his Masters debut in 2013 and finished an incredibly impressive T6 for the week. In the two additional starts he’s made at Augusta National since then, the Dane has continued to be incredibly solid, finishing T44 and T21.

This week, Olesen heads into the week playing some good golf. He gained 3.8 strokes on approach and 5.52 strokes around the green at last week’s Valero Texas Open on his way to a strong T14 finish. Back in January, he won the Ras Al Khaimah Championship on the DP World Tour.

Olesen has the skill set to be successful at Augusta and seems primed for a good performance this week.

Top Nationalities:

Sergio Garcia Top Spanish Player +280 (DraftKings):

I believe Sergio Garcia can get into contention this week with the way he’s striking the ball in addition to his good vibes with a refurbished version of the Scotty Cameron that he used at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah.

I am slightly concerned about the emotional letdown he may face after losing in a playoff at LIV Miami, but I believe a veteran and former Masters champion should be able to regroup and focus on an event far more meaningful.

This is essentially a tournament head-to-head with Jon Rahm at +280. While Rahm deserves to be respected this week, the history of the lack of success of defending champions at The Masters is difficult to ignore.

Joaquin Niemann Top South American Player -230 (FanDuel):

While I hate paying this much juice, I don’t see a world in which Joaquin Niemann isn’t the top South American this week at The Masters. Joaco comes in playing better golf than anyone in the world not named Scottie Scheffler and has a serious chance to win the green jacket.

He only needs to beat two players: Emiliano Grillo and Camilo Villegas.

Tournament Head-to-Heads:

Justin Thomas -110 over Collin Morikawa

JT isn’t having his best season but is playing a lot better than he is getting credit for at the moment. In the past three months, there are only six players on the PGA Tour who have averaged 1.7 Strokes Gained: Tee to Green or better. Justin Thomas (+1.7) is one of the six and is currently tied with Rory McIlroy (+1.7).

Morikawa, on the other hand, has been extremely poor with his irons, which is incredibly uncharacteristic for him. I can’t help but feel like something is completely off with the two-time major champion.

Tony Finau -110 over Wyndham Clark

I explained in the placement section why I’m so high on Tony Finau this week. With how well he’s striking the ball, it seems as if his floor is extremely high. I’m not sure if he can make the putts to win a green jacket but I believe he will be in the mix similarly to 2019 when Tiger Woods emerged from a crowded pack of contenders.

Clark is a debutant, and while some debutants have had success at The Masters, it certainly poses a challenge. I also don’t believe Augusta National suits Clark as well as some of the other major championship venues.

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19th Hole

Nick Faldo reveals the worst Masters Champions Dinner he’s ever experienced

Published

4 hours ago

Apr 9, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

While speaking with talkSPORT.com, three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo reflected on one of his former Masters champions dinner choices.

“My fish and chips… That was my best one. It was very successful. Everybody loved that.” Faldo said.

“I flew in the fillets from Harry Ramsden’s with these big chips as well – and mushy peas. They took one look at it, because they’re fluorescent green, aren’t they?”

Despite Faldo’s satisfaction with his choice, he recalls some other players questioning the choice.

“They went, ‘What are these?’ I said, ‘Mushy peas’. They said, ‘Mushy what!?’ So that went down well.”

“I had Sarson’s Vinegar as well. So I deem that one of the top three, honestly.”

Faldo also mentioned which Masters dinner he thought was the worst he’s ever had.

“What was the worst one? Oh, it was Bubba, wasn’t it? When we had Chuck E. Cheese.”

Perhaps the most interesting part of what Sir Nick had to say was the fact that the dinners can get emotional.

“It can get it can get quite emotional,” the golf legend added. “Because some of the old boys are getting on, or you’ve lost somebody and reminisce some old stories and that sort of thing.

“We usually have a good laugh as well. Everybody ribs [each other], especially when Jack [Nicklaus] says, ‘Well, it was pretty easy in 1965’. Everybody nearly beat him up on that one, which was quite fun. ‘So because you won by 10 or whatever?”

This year’s Masters champions dinner will be hosted by Spaniard Jon Rahm on Tuesday night.

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19th Hole

Tiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you

Published

4 hours ago

Apr 9, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

According to Jamie Kennedy of Golf Digest, Tiger Woods arrived at Augusta National on Sunday to practice chipping and putting with his caddie and a handful of clubs. Kennedy zoomed in on the clubs to see what Tiger was practicing with.

Tiger walked the front nine of Augusta on Sunday with his caddie and Rob. No bag, just an handful of clubs to hit approaches, chips and putts.

Yes, of course I zoomed in to see what clubs.

Three wedges, a 9-iron, 8-iron, his Scotty putter… and a Wilson 8802 blade putter! pic.twitter.com/kM7LXjazDh

— Jamie Kennedy (@jamierkennedy) April 8, 2024

“Three wedges, a 9-iron, 8-iron, his Scotty putter… and a Wilson 8802 blade putter!” Kennedy noticed.

It’s certainly noteworthy that Tiger was experimenting with two putters, however it’s still more likely than not that Tiger will have the Scotty in the bag for Thursday’s opening round of The Masters.

Speaking to NBC Sports a few years ago, Tiger explained just why he chooses the Wilson gamer as his preferred putter for practice, saying:

“I really do practice with my 8802 probably the most because I like feeling that toe release and I like putting with my right hand. That’s basically my training aid, and then I went to a longer putter to get more reps in.”

Woods hasn’t teed it up much in 2024, but when he has, he’s putted poorly. At the Hero World Challenge, he lost 1.88 strokes on the green. Through less than two rounds at the Genesis, he lost almost a stroke putting.