Moline caddie Navarro to carry bag for Curtis at Ryder Cup

Font Size:

By Craig DeVrieze | Tuesday, August 26, 2008 10:33 PM CDT | () comments

It is not a choice Tony Navarro would make, but the PGA Tour caddie from Moline won’t quibble with Englishman Andrew Sutton’s decision not to carry Ben Curtis’ clubs when Curtis represents the U.S. against Suttons’ countrymen at next month’s Ryder Cup Matches.

“That’s not what I would have done,” said Navarro, who will pick up Curtis’ bag instead when the two sides convene at Valhalla Country Club in Louisville, Ky., Sept. 16-21. “I’m sure I would have caddied for my player, but (Sutton’s) honesty is to be commended.”

Navarro, in fact, has carried against his home country in Presidents Cup competitions four times over the last 12 years, first for Australian Greg Norman and, most recently, for Norman’s fellow Aussie Adam Scott, whose bag Navarro now regularly totes on the PGA Tour and elsewhere.

In fact, Navarro is scouting players eligible for the international contingent that Norman will captain for next year’s Presidents Cup at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco.

A groomsman in Norman’s wedding to Chris Evert earlier this year, Navarro already has agreed to serve as caddy captain for the international squad his former boss, Norman, will lead in ’09.

Although he understands the patriotic fervor that led to Sutton’s decision, Navarro said his loyalty extends first to his friends and, particularly, to the people who sign his checks.

“The Presidents Cups I have caddied in, I haven’t thought of it as America vs. the Internationals,” he said of a bi-annual event that pits the U.S. vs. golfers from every other country outside of Ryder Cup-bound Europe. “I want the person I am caddying for to win every match.”

In Louisville, that player will be Curtis, the 2003 British Open champion and a native Ohioan. With a runner-up finish at the PGA Championship earlier this month, Curtis, 31, booked a Ryder Cup berth by vaulting into seventh place in the two-year points chase for one of eight automatic spots on U.S. coach Paul Azinger’s team.

Shortly afterward, he and Sutton, who has caddied for Curtis since his epic emergence at the ’03 British Open, opted to temporarily part ways.

Navarro was working in the yard at his Moline home when Curtis called two weeks ago to ask if Navarro would serve as his caddie at Valhalla.

Navarro didn’t have to think twice — although he did check first with his wife, Sarah, and his boss, the promising Aussie Scott — before telling Curtis he would.

Alongside the Masters, Navarro said the Ryder Cup is one of his two favorite events in golf. He had caddied three times previously in the country-vs.-continent competition, but not since 1987, when he carried for Ben Crenshaw at Muirfield Village in Columbus, Ohio.

Navarro earlier caddied twice for Raymond Floyd, and his record with the U.S. side is 0-2-1.

That is kind of symptomatic of recent U.S. performances in the competition. The Europeans have won five of the past six matches, the last two by remarkably lopsided scores.

Results notwithstanding, Navarro said he thoroughly has enjoyed his role as TV spectator over the past two decades.

“That and the Masters are the best golf shown on TV,” he said. “When the matches were in Europe, I’d wake up early and watch it.”

Despite that interest, Navarro said he didn’t find himself hankering to play a Ryder Cup role.

“It’s a lot of work, it is a heavy week and it’s good TV,’’ he said. “I guess you can say I didn’t long to caddy in the Ryder Cup. But being asked, I’m sure not going to turn it down.”

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com.