[Overkill]

Allenby's Caddie Quits in Mid-Round
http://www.thegolfchannel.com/core.a...1&select=23828

Players and caddies are only human, so I guess it has to happen now and then.

Made me curious about the rules:

6-4: The player may be assisted by a caddie, but he is limited to only one caddie at any one time.

Taking it to the extreme:

So this means that a player could potentially have 18 "green spy caddies", sitting around each green watching the putts. As the player comes to the hole, the main caddie gives his view on the putt and then hands over to the "green spy caddie" who reports how all previous players judged or misjudged the putt in front of the player.

I doubt anyone would ever do that, even though it might save at least half a stroke on each round. I often hear reporters saying "all players seem to hit this putt short or left" - and so forth.

Other than the fact that it would not be a popular sight among the peers or golf traditionalists. Has any player/caddie ever experimented with this?

Rule 6-4 also has a final note:
Note: The Committee may, in the conditions of a competition (Rule 33-1), prohibit the use of caddies or restrict a player in his choice of caddie.
I guess that note would be applied on anyone using "putting spotters".

....

Nah. Sorry about this stupid idea. Now back to the regular schedule.

Met

Your 'idea' is not as far off base as you might think. There is nothing wrong with a caddie watching play prior to his man's round. If we have a late start, I do it all the time. Furthermore, a caddie can walk the course and lazer all the pins before play; This week I found a pin on a par5 that, if you were going for the green in 2, was off by 6 yrds. The only thing a caddie cannot do on the PGA Tour is walk on the putting suface prior to play. At the British Open you can walk wherever you want.

Oh, one other little point, if you have too much energy, you can work in the early round and then again in the late round without penalty.