A little prank on the British Open-winning caddie
December 22, 2009
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (AP)—Frank Williams, the caddie for British Openchampion Stewart Cink, went from celebrating a major victory to stewing about it— at least until he realized he was the victim of a prank within the caddieranks.
For whatever reason, Williams has never liked going to the British Open, andhe was going to try to sit this one out. Before getting Cink’s permission, hechecked on the availability of longtime looper Dave Musgrove, who told Williamshe didn’t have work for the week but would be at Turnberry to watch and couldfill in if necessary.
It wasn’t necessary.
“He was having a hard time getting travel and finding a place to stay,”Cink said. “He said, ‘Would it be OK if Dave Musgrove worked for you?’ I said,‘I’d really rather you work for me.’ So I helped him with travel, and I got myagent’s office involved to find places to stay.”
Needless to say, it worked out quite well. Cink closed with a 69 to get intoa playoff with Tom Watson, then won his first major with a guy on the bag whodidn’t want to be there in the first place.
But that’s not the end of the story.
Scott Gneiser (caddie for David Toms) and Steve Williams (Tiger Woods)caught wind of this and decided to play a prank. Steve Williams’ wife wasvisiting her parents in Scotland at the time, so he wrote a letter pretending tobe from Musgrove, and had his wife mail the letter from Scotland so it wouldlook authentic with the postmark.
“There was no reason for him to believe it was not from Dave Musgrove,”Steve Williams said.
The letter said Musgrove had paid for a room deposit and airfare, bothnonrefundable, then spent an entire week at Turnberry without work. He demandedthat Frank Williams reimburse him, and it would only be fair to give him half ofthe caddie’s earnings from the Open.
It was delivered to Cink’s caddie at the Tour Championship.
“I got mad,” Frank Williams said. “I knew I didn’t tell him for sure hewould be working. Boy, I was hot, knowing this guy wanted money. I didn’t sayanything about it. Scotty and Stevie came up and said, ‘Did you get a letter?’ Isaid, ‘No, I didn’t get one.’ I was so mad I didn’t want to say anything aboutit.”
He spent the rest of the week wondering what he would say to Musgrove. Thenext week, he started wondering if Musgrove could have misunderstood him.
“I was laying in bed at night worrying about this,” Frank Williams said.
Steve Williams asked him again about the letter at the Presidents Cup, andCink’s caddie finally broke his silence and began ranting about what Musgrovewanted and what he should do about it. Steve Williams’ laughter was the firstsign it was a prank.
“That’s probably the best anyone has ever gotten me,” Frank Williams said.“That was good.”
Winning didn’t change one thing. The British Open is at St. Andrews nextyear, and Williams isn’t looking forward to it.
“Every year, I say I’m not going, and I always go because it’s my job,” hesaid. “Someone came up to me the other day and said, ‘Guess it’s your favoritetournament?’ I said, ‘No, I probably won’t go next year.’ Everybody knows how Ifeel.”
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