I Was Today Year's Old When I Learned That There Was A Proper Way To Rake A Bunker On A Golf Course
On today's Pardon My Take... MICHAEL COLLINS! The Senior Golf Analyst for ESPN joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter on today's show for a full US Open preview. Also, the guys talked about the hardest part about being a caddie, his crazy career jump from comedian to caddy to ESPN golf personality, and more.
There is no denying that being a professional golf caddie is a very important job. Look at what Scottie Scheffler did at the PGA Championship in the three days that he had his caddie, Ted Scott, on the bag versus the one day he didn't...
They make such a difference. Even for guys like us who play at a local course and get the pleasure of having someone caddie for you know that they can significantly help your score.
Anyways, before being a golf journalist, Collins was a caddie (@ESPNCaddie is his Twitter handle). On today's show, he told us a story of how he was caddying for Robert Gamez on the Nike Tour (now known as the Korn Ferry Tour), and had no idea the proper way to rake a bunker. And what do you think Gamez did on his first tee shot of the tournament? You guessed it. Straight to the beach.
Collins told us the full story on today's show...
Just a hilarious chain of events. OF COURSE the first shot of the day went in the bunker, and OF COURSE Gamez went for the green side one as well. Shortly after that clip in the interview, Collins revealed the proper way to rake a bunker:
"So at a green side bunker, what you want to try to do is make the rake marks go towards where the green is, so you don't wanna rake parallel to the green. And the reason why is, when you do that, when you rake this way, and the ball lands here, now there isn't sand in between the ball and your club. So it gives it a cleaner lie." - Michael Collins on how to properly rake a bunker
You really do learn something new every day. Now I know exactly what I am doing the next time I head out to the course and end up in a bunker. Will I shoot a 98 or 102? Probably. But you bet I will enter the bunker with a rake and a load of confidence, thanks to our friend Michael Collins.
