On Thursday night, just before the store was going to close, Harry Diamond walked into Edwin Watts Golf in East Memphis. 

If the name sounds familiar, that’s because he’s the caddie for Rory McIlroy, one of the world’s most accomplished and famous golfers. 

When one caddie gave into heat, local pro saves the day

Diamond had two putters in his hand when he walked to the counter. One of them was a Scotty Cameron, known for being of the highest quality. 

“He said, ‘I need to get one of these putters shortened,’” recalled Chris Oden, who works behind the counter at the golf shop. 

“I looked at them and I said, ‘Well, these are the same length?’

“He said, ‘No, this one is longer than that one.’

“I told him, ‘Well, yeah, but it’s an eighth of an inch longer than that one. Nobody is going to notice that.’ ”

Which was when Diamond dropped the big reveal. 

“He told me, ‘Well, this is for Rory McIlroy.’

“I snapped into it and said, ‘Oh, well he’ll notice!’”

So Oden hollered back to the employee who works on the clubs, Jim Hudson. At this point, it was already 6:30 p.m. The store was set to close in 30 minutes, and they are already backed up with club repair orders. 

“I told Harry to go back there, and Jim looked at me like he didn’t want to do anything that late. 

“I walked up to him and said, ‘Yeah, well you’re going to want to do this.

“Of course, he went back there and they handled everything pretty quickly.”

News of the trip to the local golf store was shared on the CBS broadcast of the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Saturday. Entering the final round, McIlroy is 9-under and five shots back of leader Lucas Glover. 

But at least the putter works. 

“It’s funny, I didn’t really notice it in practice, and then once I got into competitive play, I always put my right hand on my putter first to go in and out,” McIlroy said. “I just felt like where my right hand was at the top, it just felt a little too up. So I compared it to my Spider last night, it was like half an inch. It wasn’t like a huge difference.”

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Oden also said that McIlroy’s caddie purchased a new grip for the putter, because without McIlroy coming in himself, he wasn’t sure which type he would want. 

When the trucks leave, Edwin Watts is the spot

This was far from the first time that tour players have brought their clubs into Edwin Watts the week of the tournament. 

In fact, Patrick Cantlay’s caddie also came in this week to make changes to the golfer’s wedges, according to Oden. 

Prior to tournaments, tour vans arrive at the course to do any work the golfers need in preparation. But they leave on Wednesday. If any further changes are needed, they end up in the hands of the local guys. 

“Sometimes the golfers decide, ‘This isn’t as flat as I want it,’ or, ‘This isn’t far enough upright,’” Oden said. “So this is not crazy uncommon during tournament week, but we aren’t going to have 10 people come in with fixes needed. “

McIlroy, according to Oden, is probably the highest-ranked player to ever have his clubs adjusted at the local store. A three-time FedEx Cup champion, including in 2022, he’s also a four-time majors winner.

But there is a close second. It’s a story they still tell in the store all the time. 

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“One year,” Oden said, “a guy came in and was talking with our club repair guy needing a new weight for a club. He said he was coming in from the tournament.

“Well, one of the caddies on tour that people actually knew was (Jim “Bones” Mackay”) for Phil Mickelson. 

“Our guy asked him ‘Who do you caddie for?’

“Bones said, ‘Uhhh, Phil Mickelson.’

“The very next week, Phil Mickelson and Bones split up. We all blamed it on club guy Robert ever since. We always said, ‘Dude, a famous guy like that and you didn’t know who he was. That must be why he left Phil.’”

Rory aims high

It’s going to be tough for McIlroy to catch Glover, who entered off a win at the Wyndham Championship and has kept his momentum rolling. 

Like McIlroy did Thursday, Glover made changes to his putter a couple of weeks ago and got hot at the right time. 

“(Glover) is playing great and he played great last week,” McIlroy said. “He’s a new man with that new putter.” 

Maybe the club alterations can have the same effect for one of the most popular players on tour. 

“I’m going to need to shoot something tomorrow like Justin Rose shot (Saturday) morning,” McIlroy said. “It might take a 61 or a 62. If I can do that, I’ll have a chance.”

Rose shot 61 in his third round at TPC Southwind. It tied the course record. 

That can’t be that hard, right?

“Yeah, exactly!” McIlroy joked.