The historic performance of the American professional, JJ Spaun at the PLAYERS Championship, has raised eyebrows of the entire golf world. After his tied lead with Rory McIlroy, he will be competing in the playoffs to clinch his second PGA Tour title. With the professional competing against the fan’s favorite, he earlier mentioned saying, “Everyone expects him to win.” Despite that, the golfer has been making a mark with his performance and he is not alone, as he has a guided hand who has been a strong supporter of the golfer. And notably, he is featuring for the second Players championship.

Though the PLAYERS performance will be a great career highlight for the golfer, the caddie has been with him helping for a long time now. Let’s get to know the professional’s looper extensively.

Mark Carens caddie of JJ Spaun

Spaun will be entering the course for the final three holes with Mark Carens. This will be the second Players Championship for the caddie as earlier, he won with Si Woo Kim. Well, the golfer, after turning professional in 2017 with his first appearance at the Korn Ferry Tour, had someone else with the bag. Till April 2021, he continued with Zeke Salas and got three professional wins under his name. However, the end of the partnership started a new one.

The golfer paired with Mark Carens who has been in the business since 2002. He has caddied for Aaron Baddeley, James Caron, Bubba Watson, Jonathan Byrd, Martin Pillar, Paul Stankowski, Kim Si-Woo, Morgan Hoffmann, Brendon Todd and James Caron. Not only this, but his exceptional career has helped him become the tenth highest-paid golf caddie, as per Golfer Craze.

As per the 2023 report, the caddie has received $154,800 as his on-course work share. Along with that, he has a base salary of $120,000. Though the illustrious career of the caddie is what makes him the ideal choice, that is not all. The caddie was earlier a professional who had garnered the knowledge through his on-course presence.

Carens’s advice for great performance

With just one win, the American professional has already been close to victory with his runner-up finish at the Cognizant classic and T3 at the Sony Open Hawaii. But this time, he was even closer, at the Players Championship, the golfer was co-leading with McIlroy and the golfer received crucial advice for the final moment which changed the dynamics.

The leaders were 12 under after the fourth round, when the caddie advised, “Let’s stay in the moment.” The push from the looper helped Spaun in giving a tough fight to the World No. 2. Notably, the golfer also recorded great scores with his rounds of 66-68-70-72. Even for the playoffs, the golfer took the advice of aggressive play to cover the lead. Spaun for his move said, “I kind of went with the odds. I had nothing to lose. Now I’m trying to catch Rory, and I can’t really control what he does, but I can control what I do, and I just started committing to my shots and my swing and trusting it more.” After sharing the lead in the playoff, the golfer fell a stroke behind on the 16th hole. To cover up, he tried hitting aggressively, but it ended up on the negative side, which resulted in a clear victory for McIlroy without playing the third and final hole of the playoff.

Early Life of Mark Carens

Carens who is an acclaimed looper now, got early exposure to the game. Being born and brought up in Wellesley, Massachusetts, he started playing in his teenage years. However, his interest in the game grew when he went on two trips with his father to Ireland and Scotland to explore and play at the best courses in the countries.

Later, with his exposure, he went on the play professionally after high school. Interestingly, he won the 1993 and 1995 Boston Open. But his career could not continue long as it only had mini-tour action. This resulted in him ending his career in 2000 at the age of 30. However, his interest in the game was still alive, which opened another opportunity as a looper in 2002.

The rest is history as the golfer turned looper has been helping professionals for more than 2 decades now and has even helped JJ Spaun to reach close to his second victory at the PLAYERS Championship. Despite the heartbreaking loss, the duo is set to turn heads with their presence at the course. What are your thoughts on the golf duo? Share with us in the comments below.