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LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA | As a parting gift in his final U.S. Open as chief executive officer of the USGA, Mike Davis was given a golf bag.
Jason Gore’s golf bag for all 18 holes of Saturday’s third round.
It all came together late Friday when Gore was set to play as a marker with Akshay Bhatia so he did not have to play alone as the first player off the tee in the third round.
Gore, the USGA’s director of player relations, sent his soon-to-be-departed boss a quick text asking Davis (above) if he wanted to come inside the ropes with him Saturday.
Let’s do it, Davis answered.
Gore – who played in the final Sunday pairing of the 2005 U.S. Open with Retief Goosen at Pinehurst No. 2 – offered to let Davis caddie for nine holes but the 56-year-old, who is leaving to enter the course design business, was all in. It was the first time, Davis said, he had caddied since he was in his early teens at Chambersburg Country Club in Pennsylvania.
Davis carried a smaller, stand bag rather than a full-sized tour bag, though Gore joked he filled the pockets with his “lucky cinder blocks.”
“I said, ‘I think you can play as well with eight clubs, but he didn’t buy into that,’ ” Davis said. “This was a treat.”
In a normal year, Davis would not have been able to spend half of Saturday looping for Gore but with limited attendance and fewer duties at Torrey Pines, Davis’ schedule was freed up.
“A typical U.S. Open for me is 20, 25 meetings a day, and because we don’t have anybody here, because the industry leaders aren’t coming because of COVID, it’s a very quiet week,” Davis said.
“It’s actually a wonderful week for me, the last one, because I’m not in meetings all the time. I never could have done that at a normal U.S. Open, so that’s nice.”
On Sunday, Davis took on another role. Bob Ford stepped aside so the outgoing CEO could announce the final pairing on the first tee. But he left the caddying to someone else.
“He did awesome. It was so much fun,” Gore said. “When he said, ‘Hey, if you’re in, I’ll go all 18 with you,’ I was over the moon.
“You don’t get that kind of opportunity. We joked about it like, ‘Hey, what’s the one thing you haven’t done at a U.S. Open, Mike? Check that box.’ I’m just so grateful he did.”
Ron Green Jr.