Cliff Hawkins

By Daniel Rapaport
Is caddie-turned-TV-analyst Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay about to do some more moonlighting as a looper next week at the PGA Championship? It sounds as if that might be the case.

On Wednesday, PGA Tour pro Joel Dahmen posted a photo on Twitter showing Mackay carrying his bag. “Trying to warm #Bones up for @maxhoma23,” Dahmen wrote.

When we reached out to Dahmen via text message, he suggested Homa (Dahmen’s good friend) was planning to use Mackay’s services at Kiawah Island.

The timing would make sense. Homa would seem to be in the market for a one-week, fill-in for his longtime caddie, Joe Greiner, who qualified for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Chambers Bay. The first round of that tournament begins May 22, the Saturday of the PGA Championship.

Neither Homa or Mackay have made any comment about working together next week. (Mackay had not responded to a request for comment regarding a possible arrangement.) However, since Mackay joined NBC Sports and Golf Channel as an on-course reporter shortly after his retirement from full-time looping duties in 2017, he has played fill-in caddie a number of times. At last year’s PGA Championship, he was on the bag for Justin Thomas, having taken over temporary duties earlier in the summer when Thomas’ full-time caddie, Jimmie Johnson, worked through health issues. Thomas won the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational with Mackay on the bag the week before the PGA.

Mackay also worked for Matt Fitzpatrick in the two events at Muirfield Village last year, helping the Englishman to his best finish of the 2019-20 season, a solo third in the Memorial. Most recently, Mackay worked for Jimmy Walker at the 2020 Masters.

Homa, currently ranked No. 39 in the world, is in the midst of his best season on tour—he won his second career title at the Genesis Invitational in February and has three other top-10 finishes.