Local Humor - From the Valero Texas Open

Zach Johson's win may be the biggest story from the Valero Texas Open, but our local story from that tournament is a lot funnier. 

I've written about Lance and Rick Ten Broeck in the blog, two excellent golfers who grew up in Beverly and got their chops playing at Joe Louis.  Lance went on to play on the Tour, albeit without much success.  He's been Jasper Parnevik's caddy for the past ten years.

Because Lance has some history with the Tour he's qualified as an alternate under certain circumstances.  Well, the Valero Texas Open was just such a circumstance in an unexpected way.

For some reason the event was short a player for the first round on Thursday.  Lance's name on the PGA alternate list is no where near the top, but the need was sudden and Lance happened to be in San Antonio as Parnevik's caddy. 

When Lance was asked if he could play he said "YES."  However, he didn't have player attire, nor did he have his clubs, his bag or a caddy.  He bought a pair of slacks, rented clubs and a bag, and got a local caddy to play the first round.

Here's where the story gets fuzzy.  From one source I heard that Lance got his son to fly in from Florida to caddy for Jasper.  Or maybe the son caddied for Lance and Jasper used a local caddy. 

From another source I heard that Lance caddied for Jasper after Lance played his own round in the morning.  However, a player cannot walk or play the course right before or after he plays in the tournament.  So, Lance should not have been allowed to caddy for Jasper any time during the tournament.

Whatever happend, the bottom line is that neither Lance nor Jasper made the cut, but Lance ended up with a better score.  Just goes to show you that golf is a game of surprises - and laughs.