Greg Bodine, Bryson DeChambeau’s Caddie, on US Open Victory

Greg Bodine, Caddie for Bryson DeChambeau, who won the U.S. Open in golf on Sunday, joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the tournament victory, what he told Bryson during Sunday’s final round, plus how he got the job with Bryson.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
To see really below the whole goesto Shamba and he's pumped up. Oh
no, the pump and down atPinehurst for a US Open championship poisoned to

(00:28):
Shambo now has two the second atnumber two. Very very impressive performance by
Bryce and d Shambou at Pinehurst overthe weekend. But they say, behind
every great golfer is a great caddies, right, That's true. I actually
made that up just like two seconds, so it's true. It is very
true. Because joining us right nowin the radio program a guy who many,

(00:51):
many, many many people now knowhis name around the world. I
saw a guy from the UK thatwas tweeting about what a great job this
guy did on the bed for Bryson. He is now a major championship caddy.
Unbelievable. Greg Bodine, our buddywho was with us on Friday,
is back with us now as achampion. On Monday afternoon, right here

(01:14):
on ninety three to three, cajI, r FB, how are you
man? Good and toffee? Ilike, I like that little coin phrase
you came up with. I'm gonnarun with that. Behind every ear,
every great golfer is a great caddy. I'm going I'm going that's right.
They say behind every great man isa great woman, and behind every great
golfer is a great caddy man.Well, before we get into details about
the weekend and what went down yesterdaywith one of the greatest clutch shots and

(01:38):
major championship golf history, so manythings to talk about, man, you
just give us your thoughts as youreflect on what you guys accomplished yesterday in
North Carolina. Yeah, you know, starting the day with the three shot
lead, you go in with quitea bit of confidence and then to be

(01:59):
down. I think we're down tooon the thirteenth tee. Honestly, like
we we were. That's not athat's not a good spot. It's one
thing if it's a guy who's unprovenor whatever, but you're going up against,
you know, a future Hall ofFamer, one of the all time
greats in this game with Rory,and you just you just think to yourself,
like, there's he's not going toreally open up a door for you,
and so to think, Okay,I got to go make a couple

(02:21):
verdies at least just to tie theguy. And like you assume he's gonna
make pars every everything starting to feela little more dim But then prising his
t shot on thirteen, hit athree wood on that drive ball par four
and it looked like it never leftthe flag and ended up making a birdie,
And from there things just felt differentthat that was the biggest to me,

(02:42):
that was the biggest shot of theback nine yesterday. Obviously there's a
lot, there's a lot O.Well, I take it back. The
number of the shot on eighteen wasthe biggest shot. But if he doesn't
hit that three wood, if hedoesn't hit that three wood on the green
or like make it an easier birdiethere, like, we're probably not in
a position where like an up anddown wins the championship. And so pretty

(03:04):
bizarre mon about an hour and ahalf nights or an hour and a half
of sleep. I'm back in Kirklandand great, you know, I'm back
in the Great Pacific Northwest, andI'm going to head back to Nashville for
the little event here in a coupleof days. But Brison's doing the media
tour over in New York that wholething, and I was able to sneak
home for a couple of days andget back to my family. So it's
been it's been a fun twenty fourhours. Well, congratulations, Greg.

(03:25):
And last night Bryson took the timein the press conference to give you credit
for keeping him in the moment,he said, and focused. What did
you do specifically talk about keeping himin the moment and focused? Yeah,
he I think there's two couple ofthings he referred to a couple of different

(03:47):
couple different things. And the onething that kind of stuck out to me
that I was really appreciative of issomeone asked him, you know, what's
what's going to stick out, youknow, to you over these last couple
of hours, and he said somethingabout how I told him that I believed
them, believed in him on theyou know from the bunker on eighteen that
I've seen him pull off way hardershots than this, and that's that's true.

(04:11):
I just feel like we all golf, and if you have a fifty
yard bunker shot with the clubhouse rightbehind the green, there's probably some really
bad visuals that you can see ingoing through your mind. And so with
me, I keep him for me. If that's my shot, I'm sending
that thing like into the road overthe clubhouse, and like who knows where
it's sending out and so for him, I just thowt it. It was
a good time for me to stepin as a caddy. It's like the

(04:35):
x's and no's and all that stuffmatter, you know, obviously, but
it's also just knowing when to saythe right things at the right time.
And so, you know, Itold him, and it's true, like
I've seen him get up and downfrom some very similar type spots, potentially
even tougher spots. It just wasn'tin the moment to where a major championship
was on the line, and soI just want to remind him that,

(04:57):
Hey, I've seen you get upand down from way harder than this,
And I just wanted, you know, the last thing that was going through
his mind rather than maybe seeing somethingyou guys think these guys are machines,
but I've heard, you know,everyone from Bryson to Tony to Tiger Woods
talk about visualizing blading balls out ofbounds or lipping out short putts, like
these guys are human too. Ijust wanted the last thing that he would,
you know, he pictured in hismind as Hey, some of the

(05:19):
you know, what are some ofthese up and downs that Greg is thinking
of until maybe right before he getsindex to the shot, instead of thinking
about chunking in or blading that,he's thinking, Hey, what are these
few ones that Greg might be referringto? And that's kind of lasting passing
through his mind before he has totry to pull that shot off. Well,
Greg Bodine again is Bryson D.Sambo's Caddie Major, US Champion,

(05:40):
US Open Champion winner from yesterday atPinehurst. And you got that cool trophy
which I'm expecting you to let meborrow that for a weekend, by the
way, so we can talk offto you about that. Yeah, let
me kay the shot, the secondshot on eighteen that that put that ball
into the bunker. The conversation youhad with the rules official it took for

(06:00):
him to feel comfortable swinging that clubthere, he was up against that tree
branch behind him. Tell me aboutthe conversations you guys had there. Yeah,
he was about to you know,he was about to pull the trigger
and he backed off and I'm notsure what kind of audio was picked up,
but he just was like, geebo, are just not comfortable with this
right now? And I'm glad thathe kind of came to grips with it
quickly because in the back of mymind, I'm thinking, like, bro,

(06:24):
we have no other choice, Likewhat a what are like what are
the other options here? I guessyou could maybe like hut it out sideways
and or like just try to bumpand run out twenty yards to the fairway,
But even then then you're having toget up and down from one hundred
yards there was we felt like therewas a decent chance that you can get
it left to the bunker. Kindof what Rory did that was best case
scenario. Worst case was kind ofhonestly what happened. And so, yeah,

(06:48):
it was just one of those momentswhere and I think I looked I
saw the replay, it looked likeit hit one of the volunteers and went
a little left because the light endedup way further left than we expected hit
over there even the day before.But yeah, you just it's just one
of those times where you just gottadig deep and show what kind of guts

(07:08):
he got and know that wherever theball ends up, you got two more
shots. You know, we're fortunateenough just to have the chance to make
a part to win it outright,You know, I thought Rory, I
thought Rory's putt on eighteen was likeseven or eight feet from but you know,
on top of the hole, andI didn't I didn't realize it was
about half that distance. But yeah, I had the chances to make a

(07:29):
power to walk off with the trophythat that was. You know, that
was a good enough. As badas the break was off the tee,
the fact that we had that thatdoor crack open for us was equally as
lucky. So many guys want toblock out the fans, and you guys
did the opposite. Yeah, youguys just embraced the fans the whole tournament.
They got behind you. In thePGA Championship, I was stunted.
I was like, they're rooting forBryson over Xander here. This is unbelievable.

(07:53):
And it just carried over into thisWhat did that do for you guys
on the course down the stretch.It's Bryson. He'll if you look at
some of some of his interviews,and he's one percent of the truth that
he just feeds. He feeds offthat some people. You know, he'll
be walking up the fairway up toa you know, a scary webshot with

(08:15):
you know, fall off on everyend and just triple bogey staring at you
in the face, and he'll pumpup the crowd and like he he's not
afraid of that expectation and getting thosecrowds riled up. He feeds definitely feeds
off that energy. That's why he'splayed so well in team events. That's
why I think, you know,part of the reason why he thrives and
live and kind of the different typeof energy that those tournaments bring with the

(08:35):
with the music and the fans beinga little more voisterous and so yeah,
he's just he he can't help himself. I always tell people, like,
that's just who he is. Hehe if he tried to be like reserved
and mundane and just do the normallike hat tip and all that, that's
just not who Bryson is. He'she's probably trying to hold back a lot
of you know, he'd probably doa lot more if it was completely up
to him, but he restrained himselffrom time to time. But it's exactly

(08:58):
what golf needs right now. Ithink he's such a unique character. But
the best part, it's truly whohe is. And on top of that
he can back it up with somecellar golf. Well, no doubt,
Greg Bodin again, who is BrysonD. Sambo's caddy US Open winner from
yesterday at pinehuris with one of themaybe the greatest clutch shot, Greg.

(09:18):
And this is not just us sayingthis. A lot of people are on
the country the world are calling itthe greatest clutch shot in major championship golf
history, which is unbelievable that thatyou guys were a part of that.
So I just got to ask youthough, when that when that ball landed
what four feet from the hole,are you thinking to yourself, we got
this, this is over or arethe nerves still sky high for you as

(09:39):
a caddy at that point. That'sa great question, I because I was
standing off to the side. Youknow, it's a four footer right center
up the hill, and you knowhe does this five foot drill in the
mornings or before every tea time,and it's you know, he makes ninety
eight percent of them, and wow, wow, you just know you just

(10:01):
yeah, I mean he when there'sno when you're on the putting green before
it's like it's just it's a layup. It's a layup for him. But
when you have I don't know howmany thousands of fans were on that green,
especially with everything that had gone down, with us being down, you
know, a couple of strokes behind, there's just a fewels to go.
I I was torn. I Ijust I had faith in him, and

(10:24):
I just knew that if he couldfeel his hands in his face at the
moment, that he was going tobe okay. But you still you can
see a guy like Rory, who'sone, you know, he's won twenty
thirty forty times across the world,and the guy missed two putts inside four
feet the last four holes. Andso golf is just a crazy game,
and especially on those greens, it'slike you can hit we all know,

(10:48):
when you're putting, you feel likeyou're if you hit a good putt and
you read it well, it shouldgo in every time. But the reality
is you're putting on well manacured youknow, front lawn, and so you
got footprints, you're at the endof the day. There's all all sorts
of stuff going on. But yeah, I was, I was holding my
breath a little bit, and Ijust I knew that, uh, you
know, I had had a tonof faith in him. But it's still

(11:09):
just like such a relief to seethat ballgo in the middle. I was
blown away by the drive on seventeeneight iron two and twenty yards. I
would that be a stock club forthat distant or or did you have to
take adrenaline into account there? Oh, adrenaline one. And I even messed
up earlier in the round we had. We're in between clubs. I mean,

(11:31):
it wasn't like I didn't necessarily talkhim out of the club you wanted
to hit. But on number fourwe had a similar distance, and uh,
we went with a seven iron justkind of you kind of hit like
a three quarter seven iron, Andthe thing is, the wind died a
little bit, but it was itwas one hundred percent the wrong club and
it just rolled over the back andwe ended up being one of our one

(11:52):
of our couple bogies of the day, and so we got off on the
tee. It's kind of a similarstory with the PGA on sixteen, hit
in a iron from about two twentyfive and he he literally will get about
a club longer, you know,in the back nine of majors. I
remember at Oak Hill last year mysecond week adding for him, he hit
some short or some mid irons thatjust went distances that are hard to fathom.

(12:16):
You're you're you're standing, you know, you're standing two hundred and twenty
plus yards away, and you you'resupposed to just like confirm with the guy
that you're working for that in eightiron is the perfect club and it's hurting
to win. That's I don't knowexactly how well they did it depicting the
shot, but it's you know,it's a it's a backpin and the wind
was one and you know it's fivesix miles an hour, But that that

(12:37):
affects the golf ball quite a bit, especially when the ball is up in
the air for as long as itis. Yeah, but I would say
when he when he gets juiced hhis eight iron, his stock normal eight
iron on a you know, aFriday afternoon in a regular tournament is two
o five with no wind, youknow, close to Chilo. Wow.
Yeah, it is kind of nuts. But but in that situation, I

(12:58):
think four was a big hell forus. And we didn't really talk about
we didn't talk about Steven Iron atall. It's just like, hey,
take this eight iron and We're justtalk about you can hit this as hard
as you want and it's not goingto go over the back of the green.
And even I was a little surprisedthat I got as far back because
it did. But it ended upbeing a great look in an easy part
to kind of set up ating Cole. Well. Greg Bodine again is with

(13:18):
us again. He was with uson Friday and we told him if they
win the Open, he can comeback on Monday. So really, this
is probably the biggest thrill for you. I mean, never mind winning the
Open, but getting a chance tocome back and do the show again twice
in three days. It was reallyan amazing accomplishment. Man, I know
that. No, it's softy.I don't think you realize like you I
mean, I know we met eachother a long time ago. Is that

(13:39):
is that Chambers? But I knowI love your guys the show. I
love hopping on your Twitter when theMariner when the Mariners lose, and just
be able to like vent through youand like as long as you put that
out into the into the universe.I just feel bad. I think that's
what you have with like the sportscommunity, whether it's good or bad,
it's like people, at least myselfand a lot of my buddies that home.

(14:00):
We love, we love tracking yourshow and catching up with you guys
on Twitter and kind of you're likethe pulse of Seattle sports, whether it's
good or bad, and you justwe can kind of live live through you,
guys, And so no, ithonestly is. I'm really real thankful
to be on for a couple oftimes, and hopefully he plays enough good
golf to where I'm on, youknow, on a few more. And
I also promise you, guys,I would try to get Bryson on,

(14:20):
so I softie, I will sendyou. I'll send you the contacts necessary,
I'll show you the screenshots that I'llsend to Bryson, and I'll do
my best. We'll try to getthem on here. I love it.
Well, listen, that's the onlyreason why I'm friends with you is to
get Bryce on the road. Sofull disclosion, But dude, that's okay,

(14:41):
I got it. Can't be users. I'll take what I think I
can take. I'm kidding. I'mso thrilled for you. I'm so thrilled
for your family, man, Imean, your wife watching that thing and
watching that butt drop there. ButI got to ask you because there's a
story about the day that Bryson calledyou to offer you the caddy job,
and it's a very personal story foryou and your wife, but for those

(15:01):
that don't know, would you mindjust taking us behind the curtain a little
bit and telling us what that daymeant to you or why it was so
big for you and your family.Yeah, it's uh, man, it's
it's uh. I have no problemtalking about it, and uh, I
do get a little emotional from timeto time. And the Bryson thing,

(15:22):
Yeah, it's I love it's ajob. It's I love what I do.
But with how things have worked outwith Bryson, it's been uh.
You know, some people saw meovercome with a little bit of emotion,
which is understandable regardless, but Brysoncalled uh, he called me when actually
me and my wife are at theuh we're at the hospital because Kelsey had

(15:45):
a miscarriage. She was about halfwaythrough her pregnancy. It's just it's way
too as as we've found out astime's gone on, it's a way too
common of an occurrence. But it'sstill just incredibly difficult to deal with,
especially that deep into a pregnancy,and so you know, one day,
you know, we started up Evergreenwith Germaine and all that, and one

(16:07):
day I was expecting to have akid, you know, last winter and
never Catty again. And I washonestly very happy with that, like i'd
been I'd come to being at peacewith with this new chapter in my life,
and I was really excited to be, you know, a father of
three and started this new chapter withEvergreen, And the next day I was
headed to Tulsa caddying for Bryson andwe weren't having a child anymore, and

(16:32):
so it just kind of threw mefor a loop, and it was a
lot, It was a lot toprocess. It was obviously a lot of
great news with the chance to stepin with Bryson and that whole career front,
but it was also my mind wasthrown into uh was thrown into a
blender because Bryson was kind of lookingfor someone to start that next week,
which is just a couple of daysout, and so yeah, I just

(16:53):
felt like God opened a door forme in that situation, and we decided
to walk through it, even thoughit was chaos, you know, even
my second week with Bryson. Mymy wife was home with we luckily we
have some family here, and shehad to go through all the procedures to
to take care of the situation thathappened the day that he called. But

(17:14):
yeah, my my life was kindof thrown into the tailspin and it's just
been kind of it was kind ofnice to see how you know, the
situation with the Bryson has gone.I had some questions and I wasn't sure
if it is even the right thingto do, but we just walked by
faith and went in and and andand just committed to it and it's worked
out incredibly well. It's so difficultto be, you know, gone and

(17:34):
away from home, but we makeit work the best we can with the
boys we have now. And butyeah, it was uh yesterday, you
know a lot of things came fullcircle. And even whether Bryson wins the
US Open or not, or youknow, I just I'm really happy with
how the last year's gone on.And Bryson's been an incredible boss to me.
He's become one of my really closefriends, and he's given me so

(17:56):
much, so much credit for thingsthat might you know, might not even
be might not even be credible.But he's he's been just a tremendous boss.
And like I said, he's becomea really good friend of mine and
I can't be thank him enough forhow he's how he's been to me.
Well you deserve it, man,You really do amazing job over the weekend.

(18:17):
Phenomenal job getting this thing done atPinehurst. And that trophy of one
is the caddy in the US Open. I expect that thing to be on
display at the Evergreen Golf Club inRedmond, So swing on by there.
That's that's Greg's new indoor facility.They're opening up a new one by the
way in Tacoma as well very soon. Great stuff, Man, get yourself
some fricking rest, baby, soakit up and we'll talk soon, all

(18:38):
right, man, congrats man,Thanks Afi, yep, thanks Ellas,
you got it man. Greg Bodin, who is the caddy for Bryson DHMBO.
What an unbelievable experience for him,First of all, what an awesome
job number one, and then numbertwo to have that on your resume now,
I mean his his stock amongst allthose players now just went up tremendous

(18:59):
well, and I'm just glad thathe got an opportunity that most caddies don't
that gets national TV. Him beinghanded a trophy last night, that's right,
you saw that right yes, withthem announcing his name, When do
you ever see that? That isa US open thing right there. So
that was very cool, no,good for him, very very cool and
great to have that story on theair and awesome to have a chance to

(19:19):
talk with a guy that was againwith with Bryson de Chambeau every single shot
for four days at Pinehurst and apart of maybe the greatest clutch shot in
major championship history. We're gonna breaksteven SUSA, gonna join a five right
here on ninety three three KJRFL