Tiger Woods puts veteran caddie on bag for Genesis Invitational start

Tiger Woods will make his first start of 2024 at this week’s Genesis Invitational.

With him playing, he needed to figure out who would caddie for him since former looper Joe LaCava has permanently picked up Patrick Cantlay’s bag.

Alas, Woods will have veteran caddie Lance Bennett at Riviera this week, per Golfweek.

Bennett is best known for his time on Matt Kuchar’s bag, which included helping Kuchar win the Players Championship in 2012.

The longtime looper has also worked with Sungjae Im, Davis Riley, Julie Inkster, Paula Creamer, and Lorena Ochoa. He currently caddies for PGA Tour rookie Adrien Dumont de Chassart, who played collegiately at Illinois. He won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour last year and earned Player of the Year.

Dumont De Chassart is under the same management as Woods, which explains why the Big Cat went with Bennett. The rookie did not make it into the field at Riviera this week, making it easy for Bennett to pick up work with Woods.

Could Bennett carry for the 15-time major winner more than just this week? It is unclear, but some believe Tiger could work with a few different loopers.

Woods had to make do at the Hero World Challenge and the PNC Championship. His longtime business partner and TGR Ventures vice president, Rob McNamara, caddied for him in the Bahamas.

His daughter Sam was on the bag for the PNC Championship.

He also did not shut down the idea that Charlie, his son, could pick up the bag in the future.

This week marks Woods’ first PGA Tour-sanctioned event start since last year’s Masters Championship. In December, Woods hinted at potentially playing once a month in 2024, but it all depends on his health and how his leg feels.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.