tiM rosaforte
brothers in arms at columbus
win or lose, sunday was going to be an emotional day
for Jonathan and Jordan
byrd. the brothers were in
the final group at muirfield
village gc, trying to win
the memorial in memory of
their father, Jim. Jonathan
was hitting the shots, Jordan
carrying the bag.
champions were the wells
fargo championship (a
playoff loss to lucas glover)
and the memorial (a t- 7).
in 2009, wells fargo was
the last tournament Jim saw
in person, and memorial
was the last one Jim had a
chance to watch on tv.
“he’d take great joy seeing
us out there together,” Jor-
dan said saturday from his
hotel room in dublin, ohio.
“he’d pull for me as much as
Jonathan. we tag-teamed
for Jonathan’s nationwide
tour win. i caddied the first
two days … dad caddied on
the weekend when Jona-
than shot 66-66. he always
joked with me: once Jona-
than got a great caddie on
the weekend, he got the job
done.”
after finishing t- 3 to tiger
woods that year, Jonathan
took six weeks off dur-
ing which time his father
passed away. Jordan, a year
older, was already the as-
sistant golf coach at clem-
son, where Jonathan was a
star. Jordan played for fur-
man. “i wasn’t good enough
to play for clemson,” he
laughed. their dad played
football and baseball at
north carolina.
terrain, castle pines was the
toughest course on tour to
walk. when they were put
on the clock and had to run
between holes, Jordan got
nosebleeds. “Jonathan didn’t
think i was going to make
it,” Jordan said. this week
Jonathan has been good to
Jordan, only bringing nine
balls, and not bringing an
umbrella until saturday.
Jordan was on the bag by
fate. he was hoping to be at
the ncaas, but clemson
lost by two strokes to georgia and arizona state in
their regional. the three previous times he carried, he
was a fill-in while Jonathan
was in between caddies.
this time it was because
byrd’s regular caddie, adam
hayes, was home with his
wife and newborn son.
“we didn’t talk about dad,
but we talked about mom,”
Jordan said from the caddie
yard during sunday night’s
rain delay. “we knew she’d
be nervous watching.”
as Jordan pointed out, it’s
no coincidence that the two
tournaments his brother has
played well in since win-
ning the season-opening
hyundai tournament of
this is the fourth time Jor-
dan has carried Jonathan’s
bag in a tour event. they’ve
been respectable, but never
in contention. their best
finish has been a t- 15 at the
international in 2005. with
the elevation and mountain
when asked what Jordan
was doing best, Jonathan
said, “keeping up,” explain-
ing that the job is tougher
because he wants his cad-
die on every tee box and
the tees at muirfield vil-
lage are usually up a steep
incline. “it’s tough making
sure you’ve got the right
numbers in time,” Jordan
said. “[there are] a lot of
numbers the public doesn’t
know about: carry numbers,
numbers over a ridge, a
bunker, and what you’ve got
behind the hole. you want
to make sure you’re there in
time getting three yardages
and being precise.”
cover // contents // 10 things // pga tour // lpga tour // champions tour // european tour // ncaa //equipment // tim rosaforte
