Who is Ireland’s most successful caddie? From David McNeilly to Colin Byrne, from Ronan Flood to JP Fitzgerald to Harry Diamond, there are plenty of candidates. In terms of Major wins, however, there is one man on top of the pile – Portrush’s Ricky Elliott.
The 48-year-old has been on the bag for all of Brooks Koepka’s five Major wins. In fact, he has been there since the American’s humble beginnings in the professional game – from the Challenge Tour to world number one.
Easy-going and modest, Elliott is not the type to blow his own trumpet, but he is justifiably proud of his achievements in the game.
“I’m very proud. Being a part of one Major is amazing, being a part of five Majors is a joke really,” he says. “It’s just unreal.
“We all do the same job. We’re like jockeys I think; if you’re on a fast horse [like Koepka], you hold on to it, it’s going to win.
“Some of the shots he’s played down the stretch (his coach Pete Cowen interjects – “they’re all down to me!”), when these top, top players are playing well, it’s like a video game.
“You point and tell them where the wind is and he just does it. There are plenty of other caddies who do that and their player just isn’t as good. It’s the only way I can say it.”
Renowned coach Cowen, who has mentored several Major winners over the years, was on site with Koepka and Elliott at the Irish Open at The K Club last week. Koepka made a solid start at the Co Kildare course but collapsed on Friday and missed the cut.
It was a familiar story in a disappointing year for the former world number one. Koepka has fallen to 310th in the world golf rankings, which do not count LIV Tour events. The alternative Data Golf Rankings place him at 219th.
Cowen says the player’s game has been “very, very good” on the range, adding that he just needs to bring it to the course and “get out of his own way”.
Brooks Koepka and his coach Pete Cowen. Photograph: Ross Kinnaird/Getty
“He doesn’t usually search much, but we’ve had a bit of searching this year. We’ve gone back to the roots and it’s all coming around quite nicely,” Cowen said before the Irish Open, where Friday’s ragged play showed there is more work to be done.
Koepka likes straight shooters who tell it like it is. He gets that in abundance from Elliott and Cowen, who has also been with Koepka for 12 years. Caddie and coach changes are a dime a dozen in the pressured world of professional golf, so the trio’s staying power is notable, especially given Koepka’s recent struggles.
“Brooks is wise enough to realise he’s had success with the team he’s got and he’d be sort of foolish to change it,” said Elliott.
“Freshening stuff up every now and again isn’t necessarily bad, but he’s never been a tinkerer or a caddie-hater or a coach-hater; he’s been very loyal to the people around him.
“I’m not saying by the end of this year he won’t go with someone else. But he’s had a few injuries, he’s been up and down and we’ve stood by his side with his knee injury on and off the course. We care about him getting well and getting fit more than being a great golfer. The relationship that me and Pete have with him is close.”
Koepka will play this week at the BMW Championship at Wentworth and the Dunhill Links in Scotland. With the LIV tour ending in August, the feeling was he needed to play more competition golf to get back to the top of the game.
“At the minute, the three of us feel it’s a challenge to get to the top as that’s where he should be, and he appreciates that,” said Elliott.
Brooks Koepka (right) and caddie Ricky Elliott on the seventh green during the second round of the 2022 US Open in Brookline, Massachusetts. Photograph: Warren Little/Getty Images
He still finds it strange to have seen his hometown of Portrush host the Open and it was a special event for him despite Koepka missing the cut.
Elliott added: “It’s like all your worlds collide, isn’t it? Usually when you caddie at golf tournaments, you only ever see grandstands up. Portrush was the opposite, I know it without them up. Then all your mates you went to school with, all your family are there, everyone from the road. Everybody in your life there in the one week.”
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He is most at ease when talking about Koepka and the success he has had. He says it is a “privilege” to have been there as both a golf fan and as a part of the team. He points out how, in 2019, he finished first, second, second and fourth in the Majors, a year after winning two Majors out of three entered.
Cowen jokes that he stopped Koepka winning three Majors in a row as he started coaching Gary Woodland in 2019 just before he won in Pebble Beach, with Koepka finishing second.
“One person beat him at the US Open in three years. When you think about it, it’s unreal. It’s hard to sustain that, it’s hard to quantify how he did that.
“It’s just about sticking to the basics and seeing where his golf can get him again, instead of trying to prove something. He’s going to have a few more bites at it. The guy is only 35, people forget that. Phil Mickelson won his first major at 34.”
Brooks Koepka and his caddie Ricky Elliott line up at the fourth tee during the Masters at Augusta in 2023. Photograph: EPA – European Pressphoto Agency
Koepka was quoted as saying about Elliott in 2019: “Under pressure, he knows exactly what to say at the right time, and that’s what you want in a caddie. I wouldn’t want anybody else on my bag, I know that. He’s been tremendous. He’s part of the reason why I’ve had the success I’ve had. And I love the guy to death.”
The feeling is mutual for Elliott, who was a groomsman at Koepka’s wedding and says he is a “great boss”.
Elliott says the key to caddying in big-pressure moments is to stay relaxed, but also to speak and act with conviction.
“Whether your advice is right or wrong, you better say it with conviction. You must be decisive for what you say at that time.
“If you say it’s a seven iron at the tower, and he asks ‘do you think it’s an eight iron?’, you say no, it’s a seven iron at the tower. Stick with it, that helps them a lot under pressure.”