Who is Lance Bennett? All you need to know about Tiger Woods’ latest caddie
Lance Bennett will carry Tiger Woods' bag at the 2024 Genesis Invitational this week. Bennett is a renowned caddie who has been actively working in the golf industry for over two decades. He has worked with numerous top-ranked PGA Tour players over the years.
In the last few years, Lance Bennett has carried bags for Sungjae Im and Davis Riley. Moreover, he has also worked with Matt Kuchar, Bill Haas, Juli Inkster, Lorena Ochoa and Paula Creamer.
He grew up in Prince George, Virginia as per The Caddie Network. However, there is not much information about his school or college days. He has been working as a PGA Tour caddie since 2003, as mentioned in the bio of his Instagram account.
According to USA Today, Tiger Woods has known Bennett since his time working with Matt Kuchar. For the 2024 season, Bennett joined tour rookie Adrien Dumont de Chassart but as the Belgian golfer will not compete at the tournament, Bennett joined Woods this week.
However, it is still unclear if Tiger Woods and Lance Bennett's partnership is for this week only or if they would also be working together in upcoming tournaments.
Tiger Woods does not have an official permanent caddie as of now. He was working with Joe LaCava until last year but they mutually split ways, considering Woods' limited outings on the greens.
The 15-time Major champion was joined by his friend and business partner Rob McNamara at the 2023 Hero World Challenge. At the 2023 PNC Championship later, his daughter, Sam, caddied for him.
After parting ways with Woods, LaCava joined Patrick Cantlay, who will also compete at this week's PGA Tour event.
Tiger Woods' caddies over the years
Woods has worked with some of the most renowned caddies in the golf industry. He started his journey with Mike "Fluff" Cowan, who carried his bag during the initial days of his career. The duo won seven PGA Tour titles together including the 1997 Masters. However, they parted ways after working for two-and-a-half-years.
Later, Woods joined Steve Williams and had a successful run, sharing 13 Major victories and 72 PGA Tour titles between them. But, their partnership also came to an end in 2012.
Although the exact reason for their split remains unknown, Woods reportedly fired Williams after he carried Adam Scott's bag in a tournament while still working for the ace golfer.
Williams opened up about his split with Woods in a documentary aired on Sky Sports in 2021. He said (via NZ Herald):
"There was a lot of uncertainty. So when a friend I had caddied for before called me and asked me if I could caddie for him, I ran that by Tiger and he said absolutely no problem. But a couple of days before the tournament, Tiger changed his mind. He had his agent call and he said 'if you go and caddie for your friend, that will be the end of your time caddying for Tiger'.
"I thought there was no way the guy is going to fire me. But a couple of days after the tournament I got the phone call to say our time had ended. I believe in my own heart I gave 100 percent when I was caddying for Tiger the entire time I was with him and for him to fire me over that kind of thing. I found that pretty unusual," he added.
Following his sour relationship with Steve Williams, Woods hired Joe LaCava, who worked with him from 2012 to 2023.