At the conclusion of play Saturday, as I walked through the press area just outside the scorer’s building, I came across Paul Tesori doing an impromptu interview with a handful of sports writers and a film/sound crew from Golf Channel. So I jumped in, pulled up my voice recorder app on my iPhone and commenced to be entertained by the effusive and self-deprecating caddie, who has been on Webb Simpson’s bag through thick and thin. 
Tesori has roots in Northeast Florida and stared at the University of Florida before giving the pro circuit a try. He made it through Q school when that was still the obligatory right of passage to gain a card on the PGA Tour. He said his pro career was cut short “because, as some one told me once, I was allergic to nylon”. That was his way of saying playing for real dough in front of throngs of fans within the ropes was a bit different than beating your college peers on golf courses bereft of fans.
Actually, Tesori developed serious shoulder problems that forced him to change from player to caddie. But he had serious golfing chops, and has posted a couple of 65’s on the famed TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. So he knows this layout extremely well and has proven to an asset to his man Webb as he has brought this course to it’s knees this week. Although Tesori won’t take any credit.
The 2012 U.S. Open winner, Simpson was a star on the rise in the early part of the decade. But his rise was cut short by an edict from the rules setting bodies that govern golf. Anchored putting was banned by a joint change in the rules of golf initiated by The R&A and U.S.G.A, starting in calendar year 2016.
Simpson found himself in the putting wilderness, looking for both a new putter and an entirely new putting method. Gone was the comfortable mid-length putter which he anchored in his belly and that helped him to be consistently in the top thirty putters on tour. His performance plummeted, reflected by his ranking at #182 in putting on tour.
The turning point came last year at The PLAYERS, when friend and fellow anchored putter, Tim Clark, suggested Simpson try a claw grip. Simpson put that in play on that Thursday and Tesori said “he didn’t miss a putt. He hit it lousy on Friday but putted great and finished three under”.
It’s been an upward trend since then with Simpson currently ranked (not including this weeks play) #10 on the tour in putting.
When asked how satisfying it was to be in this position now, Tesori said “I almost get emotional talking about that, I have to put that off for another day, at least”.
Tesori continued, “To be at the bottom of the barrel, like we were…after two and a half years I didn’t know if he would ever putt well again”.
“He’s top ten in putting on tour, will be top five this week after we count ‘em all up…it’s nothing short of miraculous, we’ll never take it for granted again.”
Tesori is the man in Webb’s corner, on his bag, with him through the hard times and now through his resurgence. Tesori said he would have a nice tall glass of Cabernet tonight as a reward for a great day’s work.
Let’s hope he and Webb are poppin champagne corks at the end of today’s round at The PLAYERS.
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