There’s never a bad time to rip some lips. Through the many years that TPC Sawgrass has hosted The Players Championship, golf fans are very aware of the multitudes of golf balls that have found their watery graves around the iconic 17th hole’s Island Green and other water hazards throughout the course. However, I’m not sure many know that the various ponds of the golf course housed some decent largemouth bass.
While the water hazards at TPC Sawgrass are accidentally stocked with golf balls, they are intentionally stocked with fish, and the PGA Tour caddies have caught wind about that over the years. In fact, golf course ponds are sneaky-good places to catch bass.
There’s always time to cast a few lines, and PGA caddie Austin Kaiser was able to work in a fishing session before the competition actually heated up at The Players. After the tour player he caddies for (Xander Schauffele) wrapped up his practice round, Kaiser found himself staying busy with a post-round fishing session. What better way to wind down just before The Players Championship, eh? It’s also funny to think that, in golf, players do their best to avoid the water. And here’s a caddie who could wait to the ponds and wet a line once he was able to.
And to add to the moment, rapper Ludacris was performing live at the iconic 17th Hole at TPC Sawgrass for The Players Military Appreciation Concert. Instead of watching that (or I guess while also taking that in), Austin Kaiser was busy reeling in bass:
“Xander Schauffele’s caddie, Austin, enjoying the Ludacris concert at the Players.”
If that’s not living the dream, I don’t know what is.
Looks like there are some pretty well-stocked ponds at the famous TPC Sawgrass, and with the amount of golf balls that splash into the water at the course, it would be hard to imagine that a fish hasn’t been hit by an errant golf shot. It’s also very easy to imagine that the fish in the water features at the famous golf course aren’t fished all that often… so they probably bite at just about anything.
Which makes for great, quick fishing for caddies who have to mainly focus on preparation for the tournament. Just a couple of years back, caddies Ricky Romano and Brennan Little went viral for catching some monsters at TPC Sawgrass:
How can you focus on golf when you know that there’s bass like that swimming in the water at TPC Sawgrass?
If you ask me, I’d say there’s two incentives for making the cut at what many consider to be golf’s unofficial fifth major championship. One, golfers obviously want to be in the money and play on Saturday and Sunday of the tournament. Two… the caddies want to have access to the course for a couple of more days, solely for fishing purposes. If you tune into the golf tournament and see a caddie really encouraging the golfer they work with… just remember that encouragement could very well be motivated by potential fishing.
The Players Championship is currently underway and will conclude on Sunday
