GREENSBORO, NC – The caddie carousel has some movement this week at the Wyndham Championship.
For the second straight event, Hideki Matsuyama will be using caddie Taigi Tabuchi rather than his mainstay Shota Hayafuji, who famously bowed at the 18thgreen when Matsuyama won the Masters.
Tabuchi filled in two years ago when Matsuyama won the FedEx St. Jude Championship after Hayafuji had his passport stolen at the airport and couldn’t get back into the country in time. Hayafuji has missed some time earlier this season due to the birth of a child but Golfweek has learned that a back injury is the reason that he's on the sidelines for now.
Billy Horschel has veteran caddie Gareth Lord working for him again this week. Horschel has been rotating through
caddies since splitting with Micah Fugitt. For the last two weeks, he had his brother-in-law Brad Nelson on the bag. Lord worked for Henrik Stenson, including when he won the 2016 British Open, and was filling in for Justin Rose when he won the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open. Horschel enters the week at No. 107 in the FedEx Cup standings.
Tom Hoge is hoping to find a spark to make the playoffs, too. He starts the week at No. 79 and will have 58-year-old journeyman pro Tom Gillis by his side. Gillis won once on the Korn Ferry Tour and lost in a playoff to Jordan Spieth when he picked up his first victory at the 2015 John Deere Classic.
Matt Kuchar has son Cameron on the bag for the fourth or fifth time this season. How cool must it be to walk the fairways inside the ropes alongside your son? Kuchar called it their “last hurrah” as Cam begins college soon at TCU. Kuchar enters the week at No. 142 and needs a win to back-door his way into the playoffs.
Welcome back to C.T. Pan, who is expected to make his first start since the 2025 Texas Children's Houston Open. Pan has reconnected with Ben Hulka, son of the original Hulk, Steve, a legendary caddie who started transporting some 200 plastic bins and items to every domestic Tour stop more than 20 years ago before passing the business down to Ben.
One more name caught our eye: A.J. Montecinos, who will be working for Kihei Akuna, a sponsor exemption and first-team All-American at BYU this season. Montecinos has had too many bags to name over the years but is best known for caddying for Y.E. Yang when he took down Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Caddie changes shake up the Wyndham Championship field
