Local Pinehurst caddie Keith Silva has William Holcomb laughing all the way to the U.S. Amateur semifinals
By Alex Podlogar ยท August 17, 2019
PINEHURST, N.C. โ Local Pinehurst caddie Keith Silva is on the bag for William Holcomb V at the U.S. Amateur.
And they have taken their show all the way to the semifinals of the historic championship.
A match of complete opposites, Silva hails from Liverpool, England, and has been caddying at Pinehurst for 17 years. Along the way, heโs been asked to loop for Webb Simpson, Graeme McDowell, Glen Day, Paul McGinley and several other world class professionals.
But it might be his rapport with the burly 21-year-old baby face from Crockett, Texas, that might be his best match.
Sure, they do nothing alike. Silva talks a mile a minute โ as he says, โIโm from Liverpool. We all think weโre comedians.โ Holcomb has a soft-spoken Texas drawl thatโฆwell, that youโd completely expect just from looking at him.
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Silva canโt go two sentences without breaking, usually because the first sentence is setting up the second, which is typically a punchline delivered with perfect aplomb. As for Holcomb?
โMy friends watch the telly and they say, โYour boy is SO SERIOUS.โ And I say, โIf he smiled, his face would crack,โโ Silva quips.
Holcomb is married. Silva? Uh, weโll get to that.
Theyโve been together since the 2019 North & South Amateur, Silva shepherding Holcomb to a Round of 32 match play appearance on No. 2 in June. And he continues to soften up the stone-faced Holcomb, who gave Silva a blood-draining bear hug following his emphatic 4 & 3 win over phenom Karl Vilips of Australia.
โThe boy asked me today about a shot, โWhat do ya think?โ I said, โWhat, you want me to hit it for ya?โ That got him to laugh.
โAnd thatโs what I gotta do. He knows now. He drifts here and there, and Iโve got to bring him back around. He may say he doesnโt do that, but hey, this is what I do. I know my player. Webb would drift, too. You gotta bring them back.โ
Itโs working. Holcomb is storming through the Amateur and looks nothing like the 328th-ranked player in the world that the numbers say he is. Holcombโs now beginning to grin all over the place. Fox Sports is calling him the โSmiling Assassin.โ
But thereโs a reason, and Silva saw it right away at the North & South. And heโs been seeing it here all week.
โHe gets these greens,โ Silva says of Holcomb around Donald Rossโs turtleback masterpieces. โHe doesnโt need me so much on them โ well, he does here and there, after all, Iโm his caddie, and Iโve been around this place a time or two. But he gets them. He sees them. And his short game. Itโs why heโs here.โ
And thereโs a reason why Silva, who is trying to win the Amateur like fellow local caddie Bob Scheier did with Danny Lee in 2008, is here. Well, here in Pinehurst, we mean.
โI came here because of a woman,โ he says, in that first, setup sentenceโฆ
โI didnโt love her. But I loved Pinehurst.โ
It shows.
