PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Collin Morikawa’s caddie, J.J. Jakovac, became the first to win the annual caddie competition at The Players Championship with a hole-in-one.
Jakovac’s tee shot with a pitching wedge from 132 yards at the island-green 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass flew three paces past the hole and spun back into the cup for a raucous ace, which he celebrated with Morikawa and about a dozen other caddies and players who were on the tee.
For this year’s caddie competition, which benefits the Bruce Edwards Foundation, officials put the hole location in the front left portion of the green which created a bowl that fed the ball to the hole.
“[The hole location] made it a lot more possible, but I hit a really good shot,” said Jakovac, who has made nine aces and was a standout college player. “It was crazy, I told the boys my favorite part was when they went nuts when it went in.”
The closest anyone had come to a hole-in-one in the competition before Wednesday was in 2021 when Chris Rice, Harold Varner III’s caddie, hit his tee shot to 1 foot, 2 inches to win the event. Tyler Paul, who caddies for Max McGreevy, finished second with a tee shot to 1 foot, 5 inches.
The winner in the closet-to-the-pin event collects a pot of money that the caddie’s and player’s put up during registration, an additional $10,000 from the sunglass company Knockaround, an engraved money clip, a custom drawing and a VIP parking space.
The PGA Tour also matches what the winner earns and donates it to a local nonprofit of the winner’s choosing. Jakovac selected Blue Star Families, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and empowering military families in Northeast Florida.
