Jordan Spieth Is Getting Blasted for Throwing His Caddie Under the Bus on Live TV
There aren’t many caddies whom the average golf fan knows by name, but Michael Greller is one of them.
We’ve gotten to know Jordan Spieth’s caddie through his victories on the PGA Tour and the two men’s vocal discussions at tournaments.
Spieth has long made a point of giving Greller for his wins, usually saying, “We did this” rather than “I.”
But in the opening round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach on Thursday, Spieth publicly called out Greller.
On the par-4 eighth hole, he blasted his first shot over the cliff into a hazard and, after a penalty drop, his next shot beyond the green into the rough. Spieth escaped with a bogey in a 1-over round of 72.
“Two perfect shots. Two perfect shots, Michael,” he said. “You got me in the water on one and over the green on the other.”
Jordan Spieth just completely called out his caddie on national TV. Whether the caddie misjudged it or not, that’s a bush league move. At the end of the day, you’re the one hitting the golf ball.#USOpen pic.twitter.com/lFSYQSGrvR
— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) June 13, 2019
Fans took Spieth to task for calling out Greller.
“Two perfect shots, Michael. You got me one in the water and one over the green.”
That’s a LONG way from the Jordan Spieth who used to only use the first person plural when discussing his success so he’d always give credit to his caddie and deflect success.
— Adam Fromal (@fromal09) June 13, 2019
Jordan Spieth blaming his caddy for those two shots is embarrassing. Like he doesn’t know his distances?
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) June 13, 2019
I’ve never seen a player blame his caddie more.
— Kyle Newton (@KyleNewton) June 13, 2019
Spieth downplayed the exchange after the round.
“We were talking about potentially one less [club on the third shot], and I said, ‘But isn’t it playing about 60 with a fade?’ And then he said yes,” Spieth said, ESPN reported. “So we both agreed on that. It was clearly a 4-iron off the tee.
“At the same time, when you hit a couple of shots exactly where you want to, and the first one is in the water and the next one is dead over the green, I’m going to be frustrated that as a team we didn’t figure out how to make sure that didn’t happen.
“Yeah, I may have looked like the bad guy there, but my intentions were that we should be in play if the ball is hit solidly, and I was out of play on both shots.”
As for Greller, he didn’t even remember it.
“What exchange? What did he say? I don’t remember,” Greller told ESPN.
Spieth was 3-under through his first nine holes on Friday to move to 2-under for the tournament, tied for 15th place.
Justin Rose led at 7-under, but Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele and Louis Oosthuizen — who all shared the lead at 5-under after one round — had not teed off yet.
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