PGA Member Evans on Waring's Rolex Series Victory in Abu Dhabi

15/12/2024

When Paul Waring claimed the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in November, it marked his second DP World Tour victory on his 332nd appearance. His first win had come six years earlier, and this victory would also be his first Rolex Series title. It earned him nearly €1.5 million and secured one of the 10 coveted spots on the PGA Tour for the upcoming season.

Caddying for Waring was Alex Evans, a PGA Professional who grew up alongside him at Bromborough Golf Club on Merseyside. The pair began working together in 2021, and Evans played a pivotal role in guiding Waring to a thrilling win, edging out a formidable top five that included Tyrrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Thorbjorn Olesen, and Matt Wallace.

Reflecting on the victory, Evans summed it up simply: “We just kept doing the same thing we’d done all week – speaking rubbish in between shots.”

Going back to the second round, how good was the 11-under 61 and, in particular, the 3-wood to the 18th?

That would be right up there as one of the greatest shots that I've witnessed. When you're 10-under, playing the last hole, it would be very easy to get protective. You've got 260 yards with a 3-wood in your hand and you could bring a high number into play, but there was no doubt. It was so impressive and so mentally strong for him to play that shot and to hit it to two feet. That's one of the best feelings, when you see it in the air and you can see how good it is. You get a real buzz, like you've hit the shot yourself almost, even though I couldn't hit that shot myself.

What are the ups and downs of caddying for a friend?

A big positive is the stuff that's not to do with golf. In between the shots, we can talk absolute nonsense for however long. I don't think there's ever a point where we're not just chatting utter rubbish in between shots. But, as daft as that sounds, I think it's so important that you can do that as it helps to get you living in the present or away from the golf itself. If you don't know your player that well or your personalities don't match up in that sense, that's a little bit more difficult to do, so I think that's definitely a positive.

One personal negative at the start, because I know him so well and how good he is, was that I didn't feel like my opinion would be that valuable. I felt that he knows more than me anyway, so my opinion wasn’t going to be that impactful but, with time, you start to believe in yourself a little more. The same way as if you were playing, if you get results and you start playing well, you just grow in confidence. The more you do it as a caddy, the more you have an input and it works out, the more confidence you get from it. Then you can feel like you can step in more and more.

We are probably different from most because we spend so much time together, we'll go out for dinner every night and we'll have breakfast together. We used to come home from a tournament where we'd spent the whole week together and because he lived just around the corner, we’d go for a coffee on a Monday morning.

What do you remember about the birdie putt on the 17th hole to go one shot clear of Hatton?

At the Nedbank a couple of years ago he had a 40-foot putt for birdie to make it into the DP World Tour Championship and he holed it. It was one of those putts where, for whatever reason, you just kind of know he's going to hole it. It was the exact same feeling.

We stood behind the putt, we saw the line, we both picked the exact same point really quickly and I just knew it going in. And it went right in the middle. I don't know what it is in golf sometimes but we both had that feeling.

How nerve-wracking was the tee shot on 18?

It was quite a funny one because we had prepped it off all the different tees on 18 in the practice round. On the Saturday night, we talked about certain situations such as if we were tied for the lead or one ahead. There's a bunker in the middle of the fairway and you can play it up the right where it leaves you a bit of a longer shot in or you can play it up the left, which gives you a shorter shot in, but it brings the water up the left a little bit more into play. It's still a bad shot to hit it in the water but it does bring it a bit more into play off the tee.

So, he holes the putt on 17 and I'm thinking, ‘brilliant, we're one ahead, we're going to go up the right’. We walk up there and it's a forward tee which we hadn't anticipated. It made the shot easier because you could just hit it straight on the trap, the wind was off the left and just move it off the right. Everyone was really quiet and Paul said, 'why is everyone so serious?' which got a bit of a laugh and he hit the absolute perfect tee shot. I think that just got him a little bit more relaxed, more than he could have been in that situation.

What did you talk about on the 18th?

We were actually talking about Phoenix Nights. Before the round Paul had put a bit of music on his phone and it was Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight and I remembered that from Phoenix Nights. And so, walking off 18, I was doing quotes from Phoenix Nights and just talking rubbish about it.

Shane Lowry was also brilliant on the 18^th. The cameraman was a little bit in Paul’s face and Shane shouted at him to back away. After Paul had hit his second shot, Shane came over and explained that Phil Mickelson had done something similar for him before and we were chatting about that situation. Shane had dropped a couple of shots after a great start, and so for him to take the time to come over and help us out was brilliant.

But, overall, be didn't change anything the last few holes, we just kept doing the same thing that we'd done all week and every tournament and that was speaking rubbish in between shots.