Why A PGA Tour Caddie Has 'Kick Me' On His Bib This Week

Mark Hubbard's looper has the words 'Kick Me' on the back of his caddie bib at this week's Valspar Championship

Why A PGA Tour Caddie Has 'Kick Me' On His BibWhy A PGA Tour Caddie Has 'Kick Me' On His Bib
Twitter: @NathanCHubbard

Mark Hubbard's looper has the words 'Kick Me' on the back of his caddie bib at this week's Valspar Championship

Why A PGA Tour Caddie Has 'Kick Me' On His Bib This Week

The PGA Tour has allowed its players to choose what name their caddies wear this week and one played has taken a humorous approach.

World No.171 Mark Hubbard decided to put 'Kick Me' on his caddies back at the Valspar Championship and then joked that he was "Disappointed with the lack of kicks he received today," saying that "there’s always tomorrow."

"At the Valspar championship this week, players can put whatever name they want on the back of their caddies. Some golfers chose their social handle, others a nickname, @HomelessHubbs chose this," Nathan Hubbard posted on social media.

Hubbard's bagman is Kyle Peters, who tweeted: "Thank you everyone for NOT following directions... no kicking allowed."

Peters was previously on the bag of Corey Conners, with their pair winning the Valero Texas Open together in 2019.

The new caddie bib initiative could be seen as a way for players to promote their social media pages in light of the new PGA Tour Player Impact Program.

The new bonus scheme will see the Tour's 10 biggest stars share $40m, with the first-placed player picking up $8m.

Justin Thomas' caddie was wearing JT's @justinthomas34 handle at the Valspar Championship.

However, the 2017 PGA Champion and 2021 Players Champion say he is not paying attention to the Player Impact Program.

"I'm not going to pay any attention to it. I mean, obviously it would be great to be the most popular, if you will, but I'm not out here for a popularity contest, I'm out here to win golf tournaments and win as many as I possibly can.

"If I play good golf, I'll do just fine on that program, and that's the main priority.

"But it's a cool deal. It's fascinating, and obviously a lot of people have a lot of different opinions and thoughts on it.

"I mean, guys like Tiger and Phil that have pushed the game and got the purses where they are, got the game of golf where they are, they deserve to be on that -- to be where they're going to be on that list. Anybody that thinks otherwise, I just highly disagree with it.

"The reason why we are where we are is because of a certain couple people kind of in each generation and each era, whatever you want to call it, and they're definitely a huge part of that.

"I'm not going to pay attention to it. I'm not going to do anything differently. I'm already pretty active on social media.

"I'm already pretty active in trying to help out other media outlets or other organizations, charities, whatever it is, whether it's internally or known, but no, I'm just trying to play good golf, and the rest will take care of itself."

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!

Elliott is currently playing:

Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV