Will Zalatoris shares funny story about caddie Ryan Goble at Wyndham Championship
By Garrett Johnston · August 12, 2021
This week at his Wyndham Championship pre-tournament presser, Will Zalatoris responded animatedly to a simple question from the Caddie Network about what his veteran looper of two years, Ryan Goble, has meant to his career.
Zalatoris’ anecdotal answer spoke volumes.
After failing to birdie the gettable par-5 15th on Sunday of the 2020 TPC Colorado Championship, Zalatoris remembers Goble could tell he was frustrated.
RELATED: The story behind how Will Zalatoris and caddie Ryan Goble started working together
“We get up on to 16 tee,” Zalatoris said. “I’m pacing off the yardage. I’m like, ‘I’ve got 122.’ He said, ‘Pace it off again.’ I’m looking at him like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m trying to win a golf tournament. You’ve got a different number?’”
Zalatoris walked off 122, again.
“I look at him and he’s smiling and I knew immediately what he was doing was actually trying to get me to slow down and just take a moment,” Zalatoris said, “don’t press and make a mistake when you don’t have to because the first thing if someone tells you to calm down, you’re like ‘Well, no, I’m not going to calm down, you calm down.’
“So it was a really kind of good little mind trick that he played on me, and I ended up hitting the shot to eight feet, making birdie and we ended up winning the tournament by one (his first win).”
A great team moment on the course, no doubt.
Like any strong duo, there’s also some good old-fashioned ribbing between the two at times.
“It’s kind of funny because he calls me ‘Junior’ because he’s 50, I’m 24,” Goble smiled. “We get asked a lot if he’s my dad, which I love ribbing that into him as much as I can. He’s been a great friend.”
