Jim "Bones" Mackay to work for Max Homa at PGA Championship

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – There was some confusion when Joe Greiner, who caddies for FedExCup No. 20 Max Homa, qualified to play in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Chambers Bay, which begins Saturday.

At first, Greiner and Homa thought the conflict would be during the week of the Charles Schwab Challenge, which they might be able to work around if Homa didn’t play it. But after a while they realized Greiner wasn’t going to be able to caddie in the PGA Championship at Kiawah. (The Four-Ball starts this Saturday.)

“I’m imagining that Joe was a bit freaked out because now I didn’t have a caddie for a major,” Homa told co-host Shane Bacon on their Get a Grip podcast, laughing as he gave a blow-by-blow of their dilemma.

Acting fast, Greiner and Joe Skovron, who caddies for Rickie Fowler, called an old friend. And as it happened, NBC and Golf Channel correspondent Jim “Bones” Mackay, Phil Mickelson’s former caddie who in recent years has filled in for Justin Thomas, Matt Fitzpatrick and Jimmy Walker, was free.

“I was like, wow, can we do this every week?” Homa said with a laugh.

He and MacKay have gotten to know each other some at Whisper Rock, their club in Scottsdale, Arizona. And Homa has the utmost respect for Mackay, who was by Thomas’ side as the latter won the World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational last summer.

“He’s just kind of seen it all,” Homa said. He called Mackay, “one of the best minds in golf.”

Homa won The Genesis Invitational for his second PGA TOUR title earlier this season, and contended at the Valspar Championship before a final-round 74 left him in a tie for sixth three weeks ago.

He is coming off a missed cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, which he won in 2019.