After several years of starting and stopping alongside perhaps the greatest golfer in the history of the game, Joe LaCava is suddenly a very busy looper. On the heels of Tiger Woods' caddie confirming last week that he's going full-time with world No. 4 on the men's side, Patrick Cantlay, we've now learned that he's accepted a one-week gig with world No. 1 on the women's side, Nelly Korda.
The LPGA is at Upper Montclair Country Club for the Cognizant Founders Cup, and Korda is the favorite to win after beginning 2023 with six top 10s in seven starts, including a third-place finish at the first major of the year, the Chevron Championship. LaCava will be back on Cantlay's bag for the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, next week.
I have no data to back this up, but this has to be one of the first times (maybe the first time) a caddie has gone from a top-five golfer on the men's side to a top-five golfer on the women's side and then back to a top-five golfer on the men's side (for a major) in back-to-back-to-back weeks. LaCava caddied for Cantlay at last week's Wells Fargo Championship on a full-time basis for the first time.
His career is a storied one. He caddied for Fred Couples in the 1990s before moving over to Woods in 2011. Though Woods did not play full-time very often throughout their 12-year relationship, the duo still won 11 times together, including the 2019 Masters. Woods apparently gave his blessing to LaCava to move on to Cantlay following Woods' ankle surgery after the Masters.
Korda's full-time caddie, Jason McDede, is away after the birth of his child.
