Preparing for different courses and conditions can pose plenty of challenges for players and caddies, writes tour caddy Chris Simmons
The DP World Tour visits 27 countries across 44 events in 2024-25 and we’ll play in extreme heat and humidity, on linksland, in wind and rain, at altitude, and tackle everything in between.
With changing conditions, locations and courses comes lots of alterations, big and small, for me and Matty.
One of the biggest changes we face week to week is temperature. While this is one of the biggest changes, it’s also one of the easiest to work out thanks to Trackman. Within a few minutes, Matty can get dialled in on the range, and launch monitors are universal on tour these days for that reason. There are a few places we have to calibrate for different times of day – for example in Switzerland where the temperature up the mountain can fluctuate massively from the mornings to the afternoons.
Temperature also changes the impact of the wind a lot – something which is a lot harder to calibrate. Cold winds like those in Ireland have a bigger effect and a 30mph wind at 0°C is very different to one at 35°C.
Grass types also make a huge difference, particularly for players like Matty from northern England when they go to the Southern Hemisphere. Hitting a lot of short game shots is essential when you first get out to places like the Middle East too as it takes a bit of getting used to. Matty’s wedge setup stays the same every week, he doesn’t tweak grinds for conditions, so it’s very much a feel and practise process. The guys from places like Japan and China face the same challenges when they come over to Europe.
It can also be very hard to get your head around reading greens with grain and it’s essential to have a method of calibrating week to week.
For me, it tends to just be a question of whether I’m getting drenched with rain or sweat most weeks. I love the weeks when we’re somewhere we’ll not need the waterproofs, while they never come out of the bag in the UK – you never know when it’s going to chuck it down here!
At least we’re blessed to have coolers on the tee boxes, so I don’t have to carry five litres of water around in places like Singapore.
There’s also some calibration for me to do each week, primarily when I’m looking at carry distances and runouts, and that work is done with Matty early in the week.
When it comes to gear, Matty has a consistent 15-club setup with a five-wood and a two-iron – those two swapping depending on whether he needs more carry into par fives or more control off the tee.
For amateurs in our region, I’d say the biggest calibration you’ll want to get right is playing different green speeds. Take your time on the putting green and short game area at a new course and work out what some set length putts feel like, then look at where your landing points need to be for short game shots.
If I could pick the conditions for every event I’d go for 18°C, very little wind, overcast with no chance of rain. You’ll not burn, sweat or get wet, and there’s not a lot to factor into each shot.
It’s a shame I’ve not had a week like that on tour yet!
