Tom Lewis - Irish Times Article from his Caddie Colin Byrne

Down deeper and down - what's up, Tom?
CADDIE'S ROLE: Despite winning on only his third start as a professional last year, Tom Lewis has struggled badly since. As he prepares to defend his Portuguese Masters title, a good final round at the Alfred Dunhill has raised much needed hope. Does the comeback start here, asks COLIN BYRNE

WHAT CAN you say to a young professional golfer who reached the heady heights in his profession almost instantly but since then has suffered nothing but disappointment?

It is the grey area of caddying where there are no guidelines or yardage books redirecting you back to winning ways. You need to be a sympathetic psychologist while carrying out the more fundamental, labour intensive duties of carrying the bag.

It seems like we have been carrying the weight of a successful introduction to professional golf on our shoulders for exactly a year now.

I started caddying for Tom Lewis 12 months ago. He had enjoyed a high profile British Open in St Georges in July of last year, shooting the lowest opening round. Being easy on the eye and an attractive new English hope, there was lots of goodwill for the aspiring Lewis and an enormous amount of aspiration.

Carrying other people’s hopes for you in the world is arduous enough for a hardened campaigner. To live with huge expectation at the tender age of 21 is understandably stressful. This, of course, is coupled with your own expectation as an instantly proven winner. Where do you go after such a perfect start to a new career? Well, on hindsight the answer is down.

This is a new and dark space for a hopeful youngster to inhabit at a stage of life when the only concern should be having fun. I understand why those looking from the outside assume travelling the world in relative luxury to play the game you love (sometimes) and earn a good living to be a dream existence. It is a good life on tour, but to finely tuned performers, missing cuts is like forgetting your lines during your dramatic soliloquy on stage, every night you perform.

The last time Tom made a cut was at the start of June this year. We have had four months of floundering with only a couple of rounds under par and the rest way off the mark. This is hard to take for any new player, least of all an ambitious 21-year-old who won his third event as a professional.

It was mooted after his astonishing victory at the Portugal Masters last year that perhaps young Tom had “won too early”. I saw it only as a positive with his playing rights secured for two years and a chance to plan his initiation to top international golf. He had given himself breathing space in which to learn the intricacies of his difficult profession.

I recall asking him almost exactly a year ago on a wet, windy and generally unpleasant day at St Andrews after a bad final round if he was sure he wanted to be a professional golfer.

As the rain dripped from his peaked cap he looked at me unconvincingly and said he thought so. I replied that days like we had just endured, although not the norm, were a common occurrence when you play golf for a living.

It is about dealing with the tough days that define you as a successful pro. Playing to the best of your ability is the easy, enjoyable but sadly infrequent reality of life on tour. The art of longevity is about handling yourself when you are not playing well and things are not going your way. Enjoy the glory but get used to the reality.

So we returned to the Fife coast last week for our first anniversary as a player/caddie team and without either of us admitting it, after four lean months the outcome was almost predictable.

With this amount of time of failure it is sometimes difficult to see any positive future. We started with a double bogey on a mystically serene morning in Carnoustie on the 10th hole hitting a nine iron into a greenside bunker from the fairway. The ball bounced in and still plugged. There is no doubt that when you are down, things go against you in golf.

We had a disastrous day, as if our fate was sealed on arrival. At least the weather was fine. We played with Louis Oosthuizen the next day in Kingsbarns.

Tom hit the hole about seven times with good putts that refused to go in. We finished eight over in total for two rounds and even if we had shot 60 at St Andrews the next day we would still have missed the cut.

We played with Charl Schwartzel. Charl pointed out he had a wonderful first year on tour and almost lost his card the next year. Justin Rose, who had a similar dramatic entrance to the arena of hope in the British Open, spent years in oblivion before he re-established himself as a serious contender.

There is a long list of players who have risen and fallen, some on numerous occasions, only to re-establish themselves out of will, determination and belief. Four years ago Nicolas Colsaerts didn’t have playing rights anywhere in professional golf. A couple of weeks ago he was a Ryder Cup hero.

It is not enough simply to have talent in golf, you need overpowering self-belief, all day, every day and particularly when your ball plugs again in a bunker. You need to keep performing until the curtain comes down on the 18th hole and you sign your card, no matter what happens.

With 31 putts, a lot of encouragement from our amateur partner in the Dunhill Links Challenge, Kieran McManus, and effortless golf, Tom shot 65 in St Andrews on Saturday. We didn’t make the cut but the seven under par round reminded Tom he can actually play the game.

Talent is always there, but belief can be evasive. You cannot suppress talent permanently but you need to believe you are talented in order for it to come true.

As we re-visit the scene of our greatest victory in Portugal this week it would be a fitting arena in which to rediscover a belief in Tom’s undeniable talent.

I wonder what I’ll say to my struggling young pro when we start the defence of a life altering victory in the Oceanico Victoria golf course next Thursday?

______________________________________________________________

Hope things change soon for him..............

What an excellent piece which no doubt we could all take a lesson from. Thanks for posting

Not sure id like my caddy to be chasing the limelight so much.

Interesting reading but I agree with hend in that I would not want my caddy talking about me in the media. If I had a caddy it would be a strictly no comments to the media policy.

Thanks John

Interesting perspective but also agree that it's hardly the caddie's place to speak out like that. 'Course, Colin Byrne may have been paid and considered that his caddie's commission may be worth sacrificing.

Hopefully Mr.Lewis takes note of all the other can't miss young ones who go through a tough spell but come out on top.
Plenty of examples here as well as Messrs Rose and Colsaerts.

Byrne is an accomplished writer and has a weekly column in the Irish Times so it's not as if this is a once off................don't think he is giving much away here....................

Adam D wrote:Can you please [ublish the link to the article too otherwise this breaks copyright laws.

Thanks

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/1009/1224325058504.html

Adam D wrote:Can you please [ublish the link to the article too otherwise this breaks copyright laws.

Thanks

Done.......apologies.............

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/1009/1224325058504.html

I don't think the caddie has said anything out of order. Perhaps he's given Lewis the rocket up his jacksy he needed.
It's all fairly constructive comments.

He does chase the limelight in fairness, he has books out and everything. If I remember correctly he also made some pretty disparaging comments when leaving Alex Noren to caddy for E. Molinari. A little more discretion should be expected from a bagman.

This may sound bad, but do you not think a caddies should realise they are just minions and act accordingly. I know they probably need to make some extra cash on occasions so will write columns or do interviews but can they expect to be taken into a players inner circle after making revelations about the player?

Does Tom Lewis really need the fans and more importantly his competitors to know he is struggling mentally with his poor form and shows no sign of improvement? If the caddie feels the need to blab for an extra buck could he not have spun the story to show that Tom is a confident young pro not bothered be a few bad results, who can’t wait to defend a title he won as a rookie?

Colin Byrne has clearly not taken it to the Steve Williams level of a caddy over stepping his station but if I were Tom Lewis I would think about putting Colin back in his place. I remember a few people criticising tiger for not making sure some of his team (mainly Haney) did not have a clause in their contract to stop revelations. Should Tom not then think about doing something similar with Colin?

Mac, he's hardly said anything detrimental or disparaging. Lewis should probably take note if anything.

Or could it be that Colin is looking to drop Tom?

I always laugh at Monty admitting to being dropped by Jason Hempleman.

Doon, I guess that is another way to look at it. It is not like Colin will be earning a lot from Tom at the moment.

Byrne has been writing for a long time and has had 2 or 3 books published.............im sure he sees this as a profession that will last a lot longer than caddying will and im sure he makes every player aware that he has a weekly column.

It's then up to the player to either say, yeah, i still want you as a caddie or no thanks................

In fact when Byrnes first book came out he was working for Goosen, and Goosen wrote the foreword...........................

This chap has a lot more experience in golf than Lewis has. It's a bit premature to say he should be sacked for it.

Super

No one is saying he should be sacked, just that he should maybe reveal less about Tom's current state of mind. If I were to employ a caddy I would ensure they said nothing to remove any doubt over what they could or could not talk about.

Maybe he showed it to Tom and he was ok with it. It does after all send a subtle "back off with the high expectations -- this is harder than you think " kind of message.

Well Mac, that may be your choice to silence your caddie, but we don't know if Lewis has been irked by it or whether he didn't want it aired.
He's two under through 9 in his defence of his maiden title, so it doesn't seem to have affected him adversely.

What's the caddy motto again? "Keep up, put up and shut up"?

Tom Lewis enjoying a super round so far today in Portugal, in 4th place after 15 holes.
If he maintains this pace I'll be looking forward to Colin Byrne's next column.

Commentators curse.... He then bogied 16 and 18, shot a 73 today and just makes the cut on the number.

Harrington nicely place, I do think he is going to win one of the silly season tournaments could this be the one?