Woods’ caddie LaCava back on Freddie’s bag…for now

Tiger Woods’ caddie, Joe LaCava returned to the side of former boss Fred Couples at last week’s Champions Tour event in Iowa.

With Woods continuing to recover from February’s near fatal car crash, LaCava has also been missing from the PGA Tour for some time.

Fred Couples and Joe LaCava (Credit: Champions Tour)

LaCava began caddying on the Tour in 1987 and joined Couples in 1990, with the pair combining for 10 of his 15 PGA Tour victories capped by the 1992 Masters victory at Augusta National.

The now 66-year-old Connecticut-based LaCava and sporting a moustache, then began working with Dustin Johnston for four-years but after Woods ended a 13-year relationship with Kiwi bagman Steve Williams, Woods approached Johnson who agreed to release LaCava to caddie for Woods.

That was in 2011 and since then Woods and LaCava have combined for 11 PGA Tour sanctioned victories and none better than Woods’ 2019 Masters triumph and 15th major title.

“Actually eating pasta watching hockey with him right now,” was LaCava’s response to a text message from my PGA Tour colleague Bob Harig at ESPN.

“Like nothing has changed 10 years later! But in saying that, I do miss it and I love Fred like a brother. Though I would kill to be working this week for TW in Columbus (The Memorial).”

LaCava last caddied for Woods in December’s PNC Challenge in Orlando but is used to waiting for the 82-time PGA Tour winner, including for lengthy periods in 2016 and 2017 when Woods was recuperating from on-going back surgery.

“If I could live another hundred years, I’d wait another hundred years,” said LaCava.

“I was never not going to work for Tiger as long as he was going to have me. I just wanted to work for him and no one else. And I think that helped him a little bit, knowing that he had a friend that thought that much of him, as a person and with his game.”