MONTREAL – Most of the changes in golf over the last three decades can be measured in money.

However, this week they can be measured in fabric.

“When I was a caddie in 1994, of course I was there all week,” says Bones Mackay. “They gave us three golf shirts to get us through the seven days and put us up in a run-down motel on the edge of town.”

Mackay takes a short break. A grin peeks out between his deeply tanned skin and white teeth. His voice falls silent.

“This week the caddies are staying in the same hotel as the players, driving to and from the course with the players and having lockers next to the players,” Mackay said. “It shows how much has changed – not just in golf, but also at this event.”

Indeed, the Presidents Cup is changing, and no one knows that better than Mackay. In 2024, he will continue what is arguably the event’s most impressive Ironman series: He has worked… all from them. He started in 1994 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, where he caddied for a young prospect on the US side named Phil Mickelson… and continued his career until 2024 at the Royal Montreal, where he is an on-course reporter on his second tour of duty for NBC. The weight of the last 30 years of professional golf hangs over Mackay like one of those early ’90s golf shirts over his elbow, but time has given him a certain wisdom. In 1924, Mackay knows things he didn’t know in 1994, and this week that means something surprising: The Presidents Cup, he says, is becoming real.

“When we were in the last caddy there in Charlotte, there were incredible crowds and fantastic weather,” Mackay says. “There was a moment on Sunday when I wasn’t so sure whether the USA would win. It got pretty tight there. I just remember thinking to myself: Sure, this isn’t the Ryder Cup, but the President’s Cup has grown by leaps and bounds.”

As a voice paid to cover the Presidents Cup, there are admittedly more unbiased sources of Presidents Cup optimism in the golf world. But if you’ve ever heard Mackay on TV, you know he’s endowed with a form of golfing synesthesia – that’s how his brain works sees the same golf scenes as the rest of us, but experiences them differently. Normally this looks like the scene at the 2019 Presidents Cup when Mackay witnessed Haotong Li hit a shot from the trees on the third hole at Royal Melbourne. To the rest of us it looked like a typical exchange, but Mackay knew something was wrong.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘You’ll make him play this again‘” Mackay says, just like he did on the NBC show.

Mackay was right. Li had played out of order and the Internationals were forced to repeat their shot, changing the character of their game.

Looking back, he now says that it was just one of the few moments in the years that followed that changed the face of the Cup – and changed his perception of the event’s future.

“There are times when this event gets choppy,” Mackay said. “It’s fun to see it up close.”

He admits this isn’t the comprehensive evidence of change in the Presidents Cup that most fans are looking for. And it is true that the existence of a serious competition depends on a more balanced sparring between the teams, which have so far only seen one international victory. But Mackay’s argument is not that the change is there, but that the change is there Come.

After all, big changes are usually the result of many small changes that come their way. Things like new hotels or equipment losses so great that Mackenzie Hughes lost clothes within them.

“It’s probably 10 times what I expected,” he said. “My hotel room is full of stuff. It’s hard to find things. The first day I couldn’t find my belt. I didn’t have a belt.”

Perhaps what happens between the ropes this week will lend some credence to Mackay’s claims. But even if not, Bones doesn’t have to look far to see what has changed about this event over the last 30 years.

It’s right in the closet.

James Colgan

Golf.com Publisher

James Colgan is GOLF’s news and features editor and writes stories for the website and magazine. He leads Hot Mic, GOLF’s media arm, leveraging his on-camera experience across all of the brand’s platforms. Before joining GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse University. During this time he was a caddy scholarship player (and sharp looper) on Long Island, where he is from. He can be reached at [email protected].