Golfer penalized at Senior British Open for ‘undue delay’ by caddie

The player-caddie relationship in professional golf is very much like a marriage. You’re going to have days where you completely click as a team and everything seems to be going right.

And there will also be off days when things … well, they don’t go as planned.

Pete Oakley, the 2004 winner, had one of those off days on Friday at the Senior British Open, missing the cut by a mile after carding an 83 that included a two-shot penalty for “undue delay” after his caddie had trouble locating his ball in the fairway on Turnberry’s 13th hole.

“It came to our attention that Pete Oakley was having some trouble on the 13th hole,” European Tour senior referee Andy McFee said after the round.

“He stood by the bunker where his ball had landed for two or three minutes, then there was a couple of minutes wandering up to the tee, then a couple of minutes for the rules official to go and get the caddie from the 10th and bring her back.”

Stupid cad… wait, what’s that? Oh, that’s right, Oakley’s caddie for the week happened to be his wife, Jennifer. You can bet the 63-year-old refrained from calling his wife out for the mistake, because the last thing Oakley wanted was an awkward car ride back to the hotel with his significant other. Smart move, Pete.

”I might not have been laughing so much about it if the two-shot penalty had seen me miss the cut,” Oakley said.

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo! Sports