Dustin Johnson and caddie Bobby Brown decide to split ways
Professional golfers spend a ton of time on the road every year, and while some guys bring their wife and kids along, most tend to spend their time with one person: their caddie.
It's no surprise that players and caddies have a special relationship, one that tends to border on a marriage. You spend so much time together during the year, that there's bound to be arguments and disagreements. But the one thing that keeps most players and caddies together is mutual respect and trust in each other.
Dustin Johnson and caddie Bobby Brown have respect for each other -- they've been working together since Johnson's rookie year in 2008 -- but there was clearly something going on behind the scenes, as both decided to split ways on Tuesday after almost three years together.
As Golf World's Tim Rosaforte wrote, it was actually Brown who started the dialogue about calling time to their player-caddie relationship. Needless to say, the two have been through a lot together, including Johnson's final-round U.S. Open implosion, his win at the BMW Championships, and his rules violation at the 2010 PGA Championship that cost him a shot at his first major.
As some players will tell you, sometimes you just need a different perspective on the bag after hearing the same thing for so many years. That's obviously what Johnson and Brown were going for with the split. "There's no bad blood between [Dustin] and me," Brown told Rosaforte. "We are very cool with each other and will remain very close. We're like brothers."
Johnson already has a second-place finish to go along with two other top 10s, so it's not like the guy is mired in a golf slump. With the U.S. Open still two months out, it'll be interesting to see who he decides to put on the bag. After so many years with Brown, he's definitely going to need somebody he can trust.
