'An amazing week'

The Open at St Andrews tends to conjure up remarkable stories, and the tale of David Diaz and his search for a caddie in 2005 is the stuff of legend.

Just over two decades ago, as golf's original championship returned to the Old Course, Diaz was joined on the bag by an investment banker from Surrey with a double-digit handicap relishing a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

While Diaz missed the cut at five-over-par that week, the story of how he joined forces with Stephen Bridle at The 134th Open endures as one of the Championship's most surprising tales.

It's a week both men look back on with fond memories, and it forged a special bond which endures to this day.

Diaz’s first experience of The Open came ten years earlier, when he watched on as a spectator at St Andrews having been unsuccessful in his bid to qualify.

And though he wasn't competing, it represented the Australian's first taste of the hallowed Fife fairways to which The Open will return in July 2027.

“I went to St Andrews just to see it,” he said, in an article originally available to One Club members. “It’s an amazing place and an amazing town. You stand on the 18th tee-box and it sends shivers up your spine.”

So it was fitting that the home of golf was the destination when he eventually earned his place in the Championship after qualifying at Melbourne’s Kingston Heath Golf Club a decade later.

“I didn’t know it was being played at St Andrews until the 15th hole in the second round and my caddie told me,” he said.

“I then got really tense in the last three holes! But I got it done and it was a cool feeling to know I had got one of the four spots. It was very special.”

The caddie who revealed the information was Diaz’s usual right-hand man, Harry Joss, who was unable to make it.

During qualifying, Diaz discovered one of his friends and fellow qualifiers, Martin Doyle, had taken a call from a man in the UK offering him £10,000 to be his caddie, should Doyle have qualified - and that prompted an idea.

Encouraged by a friend with whom he had shared Doyle’s anecdote, Diaz listed on eBay the opportunity to be his caddie during Open week at St Andrews.

“I messaged a few friends in the media here, and it got out,” he said. “It snowballed into this decent-size news story in the lead-up and it was getting out of hand. I had five TV stations covering it at one point.

“Initially, we had the auction until the Monday before The Open but my contact at eBay said to me that if someone from Australia won it – which was very possible considering all the media attention it had there – then it would be a tight turnaround to get them on a flight to St Andrews. So, I brought it forwards three days.”

It was around this stage when, in an office in central London, Stephen Bridle picked up his copy of The Daily Telegraph - and the rest would be history.

“I remember it was the Friday before The Open, which was to be Jack Nicklaus’ last one,” Bridle begins.

“He was the lead story but below that there was something about David Diaz putting his caddie position up on eBay.

“One of the guys in the office said ‘Stevie, this would be right up your street, have a look’.

“We had rented a house to take clients up to St Andrews for the week, so I already had accommodation lined up.”

Although the advert was withdrawn after a winning bid had been entered, Bridle was not to be denied.

“I pinged an email to David’s manager and told him I was willing to match the bid (around £8,000) if the winner pulls out,” he said.

“At five o clock on the Friday evening, I was on my way out the office when someone picked up the phone and said ‘there’s a guy from Australia who wants to speak to you’.

“By this time, the whole office has clicked into the line. I picked up the phone and he said ‘hello mate, this is David Diaz’s manager’. He told me the American who had won the bid couldn’t get the week off and asked if I was still happy to be David’s caddie.

“I’m a man of honour, so I said yes, I’d love to.”

The pair arranged to meet in The R&A foyer on Monday morning prior to their first practice round – and it did not take long for Bridle to have cause to pinch himself, with Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus among the star names joining them to sign-in.

“David is genuinely such a nice man and made me feel incredibly welcome, as did the other caddies we met," he said.

“He had no friends and family over, so arranged for passes for my wife, Viola, and I to join him in the players’ lounge after rounds. Viola is a photojournalist and was able to come inside the ropes to take pictures of our practice rounds."

As the Thursday tee time approached, Bridle was grateful for Diaz’s somewhat relaxed approach to the challenge they were taking on.

“On the first tee, I was incredibly nervous,” he said. “David said to me ‘don’t worry, I’ll do the yardages, just keep me fed and watered, we’ll have some banter and some fun’. He was great in that respect.”

With Bridle by his side, Diaz shot 74 on the opening day and was later in contention to land inside the cutline – but the finish to his second round proved costly.

“I was in it, I played solidly, but I made a bogey on 17 after a bad wedge shot and then I hit the tee shot out of bounds at 18," he added.

“I hit a poor drive and it ran under a spectator fence. I bogeyed there, so went 5-5 on the last two and missed the cut.

“But it was an amazing week, it’s about the memories. It’s not as great as winning an event but it is the one major I played in – it’s rocking chair stuff.”

Bridle, who largely resisted the temptation to offer his input around the greens, echoes those feelings.

“Tee to green, David was fantastic,” he said. “If he had putted better, he would definitely have made the cut.

“If I’d have known him better – and I’m a 12 handicapper, I can’t tell a pro what to do – I would have taken him over to the new course, which was closed to the public, and just spent a couple of hours a day doing 30, 40, 50-foot putts.

“The only disappointing thing was not making the cut but it was an unbelievable week.

“I am reminded of it every day. I have my bib from St Andrews in a frame in my kitchen with a lovely inscription from the caddie master.

“Looking back, it was just an incredible thing to do. If I’m playing now with someone I don’t know or haven’t played with before, someone might say ‘we’ve had a peek and saw you caddied at The Open’, and they will ask what it was like. That’s very special.”

Having struck up an instant rapport over the course of golf’s oldest major, Diaz and Bridle have remained good friends in the years since.

They met up when Diaz played at the 2007 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and their families stayed together when the Bridles were travelling around Australia two years later.

Then last summer they joined forces once more as Diaz attempted to qualify for the Senior Open at Sunningdale.

“He is the nicest guy imaginable. We are great mates now and I can’t praise him highly enough,” Bridle said.