You think you are having a bad day? Try getting fired from your job without even a phone call – and from a 16 year old boss! That’s exactly what happened to caddie Greg Johnstone, Michelle Wie’s caddie of late. It seems the Wie Corp. didn’t even have the sense enough to call the guy to tell him his fate. He got the axe at the airport by her agent.
Johnstone was Julie Inkster’s caddie for 11 years when Michelle came along and “stole him out from under her”, according to Inkster. An ultimatum was made – either her or Me (Wie) and Johnstone chose to lug around clubs for the rising superstar kid from Hawaii.. At the time it probably seemed like a no-brainer for Johnstone. After all, Michelle was supposed to be cleaning up on the circuit, winning tournaments right and left, while Inkster was in her mid-40’s, getting old and retiring at some point in the near future. How things change hmmm?
But the 26th place finish at the LPGA British Open was just too much for the Wie big wigs to take. How dare he make her play so badly! Of course it was his fault for not filling her in on the 13-4c rule before she picked up a two stroke penalty for violating it. Any caddie worth his salt would have the rule book in his back pocket ready to quote from in any situation, right? And you can’t expect a golf professional to actually KNOW the rules of the game right?
This is the statement that was made by Michelle’s agent…..
[Greg’s] “departure comes as part of Michelle’s maturation as a golfer, part of which is learning from many different bright golf minds.”
What? What the hell does that mean? Don’t you just wish that Michelle would start at least looking like she is calling some shots? She could have called Greg himself and just told him that she needed a change and that things just were not working the way she wanted them. Much better approach than having the Wie machine handle it. If she is mature enough as a golfer to play on PGA tour events, she should be mature enough to call her damn caddie and tell him he’s out. Oh, wait, she’s only 16.