Banging out 150 pushups. Strolling in grass in his naked ft. Singing a Disney music as he strolled the fairways. Recording a rap music video.
The week might have been the zaniest of Dean Emerson’s life. And top-of-the-line.
Knowledgeable caddie since 2019, the Lowell resident was within the highlight eight days in the past when Patton Kizzire captured the PGA Tour occasion in Napa, Calif., the Procore Championship, by 5 photographs.
It was the primary time Emerson caddied for a PGA Tour winner. Kizzire took dwelling the winner’s $1,080,000 purse after rounds of 66-65-67-70, his third tour win and first in six years.
“Sunday was great,” stated Emerson. “Patton took care of business. I never really felt any stress. It’s the highlight of my PGA career, for sure.”
Sept. 15 marked the one-year anniversary of Emerson working with Kizzire. It was additionally Kizzire’s father’s birthday. And the nineteenth anniversary of Emerson being sober.
“All the stars aligned,” stated Emerson, a former Lowell Excessive Faculty assistant soccer coach underneath Al Pare.
Emerson downplays his function in Kizzire’s victory. A gifted putter, Kizzire learn the strains on all of the putts. Which was simply advantageous with Emerson.
“Lug ’em and scrub ’em,” he joked about his caddie duties. “I knew the clubs were clean.”
“Patton took the putts and shots. I’m just there for a good walk and I’m trying to keep his head in the game, but take his mind off the game, if that makes sense,” the 54-year-old Emerson stated. “You don’t want him stressing out over every shot.”
Successful the match ensured Kizzire an invite to subsequent yr’s Grasp’s and PGA Championship. He had gone 176 PGA Tour occasions with out profitable.
“It’s life-changing,” Emerson stated. “He made it look so easy and relaxed. He never gave the impression he was stressed at all.”
That’s the place Emerson and Amiee Smith-Schuster got here in. Smith-Schuster is a psychological coach Kizzire just lately employed.
On the Wednesday previous to the Procore Championship, Kizzire and Emerson took to the driving vary. It was determined that each time Kizzire hit a shot to a precise quantity, Emerson would hit the bottom and do 10 pushups.
When the session was over, Kizzire had hit 15 photographs proper on the quantity.
“I was a little sore Thursday morning,” a laughing Emerson stated of his 150-pushup day. “Well worth it.”
On Thursday, the primary day of the match, Smith-Schuster advised Kizzire take off his sneakers and stroll within the grass. Kizzire, joined by Emerson, did so to turn into one with nature.
On Friday, Smith-Schuster had Kizzire hug a tree. (Emerson stayed out of this exercise). On Saturday, she had Kizzire and Emerson singing “Heigh-Ho” as they walked between photographs. The music is from Walt Disney’s 1937 animated movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
“She’s out there. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box,” Emerson stated.
Smith-Schuster wasn’t completed. With Kizzire holding a four-shot lead after the third spherical, Smith-Schuster let Kizzire and Emerson know she had written a rap sang. She despatched directions for them to carry out the music, which Emerson recorded on his telephone and despatched to her earlier than Sunday’s last spherical.
It was per week Emerson will always remember. Born in Lowell, he was raised in Merrimack, N.H. He was a three-sport star in highschool and performed soccer at Plymouth State. He didn’t take up golf till after faculty.
A former member at Mt. Nice, the place his household has intensive roots, and Vesper, Emerson now’s a member of a course in North Carolina, the place he works within the lab diagnostics subject.
Emerson caddied for Doc Redman when Redmen gained an exhilarating 37-hole battle to seize the 2017 U.S. Beginner Championship. His profession as a professional caddie started two years later when he carried the bag of Andover native Rob Oppenheim.
In January 2023, Emerson was caddying for PGA Tour rookie Davis Thompson when Thompson completed second on the American Categorical Event. Eight months later, Thompson advised Emerson he wished to work with one other caddie.
“It was kind of puzzling,” Emerson stated.
Three days later he acquired a name from Kizzire. Emerson will stroll facet by facet with Kizzire on the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss., Oct. 3-6.
Emerson will carry Kizzire’s golf equipment and attempt to preserve him centered. And if he has to bang out 150 pushups, stroll barefoot by means of the grass, sing a Snow White music and star in a rap music video, nicely, he’s sport.
