The Royal & Ancient (R&A) organisers gave a mixed reaction to the sight of Manchester City footballer Carlos Tevez caddying for fellow Argentine Andres Romero in the final round of the British Open.
“I think we may need to look at this particular case,” R&A championship committee chairman Jim McArthur told reporters on Monday.
“The strange thing for me was he never put the bag down so when he was standing on the green he was carrying the bag all over the place. It’s just absolute madness.
Look who that is! Getty Images
“Maybe it’s something we need to just have a look at,” McArthur added. “We do normally get a list of caddies at the beginning of the week and we take that into account.”
An unshaven Tevez, grinning broadly all the way round on Sunday, was not able to inspire his friend Romero who carded four double-bogeys and a solitary birdie to close with a dismal 82 to finish on 18 over and last in the field.
While McArthur seemed less than enamoured, his chief executive Peter Dawson chose to accentuate the positives of the incident.
“It’s not for me to say anything about players’ choice of caddie as long as they behave in the best traditions of the championship and within the rules,” said Dawson.
“For all I know Mr Tevez may be a very experienced caddie. I’ve got no information as to his background.
“But whether it’s the player’s fault or the caddie’s fault that the score was so high, I couldn’t possibly comment,” Dawson said with tongue firmly in cheek.
“It was pretty interesting, I thought, because of the big crowd following the group, that golf fans and football fans may overlap a little more than I had realised. It’s not a bad thing, perhaps.”
Reuters
