Patrick Cantlay with Joe LaCava. Kevin C Cox

Joe LaCava had to be pleased with his first official round on the bag as Patrick Cantlay’s new full-time caddie. The tandem shot an opening 67 at the Wells Fargo Championship, and maybe even more importantly to the veteran looper, it sounds like he’s already getting through to his younger player. Well, in terms of sports teams, that is.

Following their first round at Quail Hollow, Cantlay was asked a slew of LaCava-related questions by reporters, including this final one: “Has he converted you into a Yankees or Giants or Rangers fan?” In case you’re not aware, Tiger Woods’ long-time caddie is a huge New York sports fan, often wearing shirts of his favourite teams under his caddie bibs.

So it was no surprise that Cantlay was asked a lot about LaCava, and about this topic specifically. And it was no surprise that this was the PGA Tour star’s answer:

“Not yet, not yet. He’s working on Yankees fan, though,” Cantlay said. “He’s working on me.”

Joe didn’t waste any time now, did he? You love to see it. Well, at least, I do as a fellow New York sports fan. And Joe’s method of starting with the Yanks makes sense give the fact that it’s baseball season. Joe is still licking his wounds from the Rangers losing a Game 7 to the New Jersey Devils on Monday, and there will be plenty of time for him to push the Giants before the NFL returns.

But LaCava has his work cut out for him. As a SoCal guy, we’re assuming Cantlay is a Dodgers fan and they’re in first place yet again. Meanwhile, the Yanks are in the basement in the AL East. In any event, it sounds like these two will be discussing this stuff a lot in the coming months.

“Yeah, mostly anything but golf in between shots and then click in 30 seconds before,” Cantlay said of what the two talk about out on the course.

Keep working, Joe. Keep working.