Taylor Pendrith walks on the seventh hole during the third round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club on Aug. 31, in Atlanta, Georgia.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Like many Canadian kids, hockey was Taylor Pendrith’s first love. He wasn’t bad at it but in his teens realized his ability would never carry him to the NHL. Instead, as he pursued a career in golf, Pendrith lived vicariously through the on-ice success of a friend.
Mitchell Theoret was a summer golfing buddy when they were young. He went on to be drafted by the New York Islanders and played for five seasons in the OHL before he concluded his career in Europe.
“He was my cousin’s best friend and we became friends very quickly,” Pendrith says. “It was a lot of fun following the career of a guy who had the talent and the skill to do what I couldn’t.”
In 2018, as Theoret recovered from an injury, Pendrith reached out and asked if he would caddy for him one weekend on Canada’s Mackenzie Tour, a PGA-sponsored proving ground for promising players.
“We hung out and I carried his bag and we had some laughs,” Theoret recalled this week, a few days before they will join forces at the Presidents Cup. Done with hockey, Theoret has been Pendrith’s full-time caddy on the PGA Tour since 2021.
“It’s something I absolutely never ever would have believed would happen,” says Theoret, 31.
Theoret was injured in 2019 as well and Pendrith called and asked him to caddy at 10 events on the Mackenzie circuit. Then, after Pendrith earned his regular PGA Tour card toward the end of 2020, he issued Theoret the invitation that changed the course of his life. He realized he had hit the wall with hockey, but had doubts about joining the world of professional golf.
“I wasn’t sure I was even qualified to do it,” Theoret says. “I had only attended one PGA Tour event in my entire life. I told Taylor that and he said we would do it together.”
Now he will serve as Pendrith’s bag man at the Presidents Cup, which is contested every other year and offers no purse or prize money. The match-play tournament pits a team of a dozen players from the United States against 12 international opponents over four days. Beginning on Thursday, it will be staged at the Royal Montreal Golf Course.
Mike Weir, the only Canadian to win the Masters, is coach of this year’s international squad, which has won only once in 14 tries since the Presidents Cup was inaugurated in 1994. Weir also appointed fellow Canadians Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., and Mackenzie Hughes of Hamilton to the team. Pendrith, Conners and Hughes were all college teammates at one point at Kent State.
Pendrith reached a career-high ranking of No. 44 on the PGA Tour earlier this month and won his first event in May in Texas at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson Classic. The 33-year-old shot 23-under-par over 72 holes to edge American Ben Kohles by one stroke.
Pendrith has six top-10 finishes in 24 starts on the PGA Tour this year and has earned a little more than US$4.5-million.
This is only the second time the Presidents Cup will be staged in Canada. Royal Montreal was also the host in 2007, when the U.S. won but Weir held off Tiger Woods in a thrilling singles match on the final day.
Pendrith was on the international team in 2022 for the first time and failed to win any of his four matches. The Americans won, 17.5 to 12.5, in Charlotte, N.C.
Pendrith hopes playing on home soil this time will help change the Canadians’ fortunes.
“To play in it has been a huge goal of mine since the beginning of the year,” says the native of Richmond Hill, Ont. “To do it in Canada is going to be so special. It’s going to be like a home game where everyone is cheering for you.
“The crowd can really play a big role in a match and help you gain and sustain momentum. Everyone on our team wants to win. It hasn’t been done for a long time.”
The International Team last won in 1998 in Melbourne, Australia.
Weir said Pendrith was always up for consideration for this year’s squad, but sealed the deal with the best year of his career.
Pendrith and Theoret’s unusual golf/hockey relationship captures Weir’s imagination.
“I think it’s a great story,” Weir says. “It’s more than that, actually. It’s a great Canadian story.”
At one point Weir and his long-time caddy Brennan Little played hockey together.
“It happens out there,” Weir says. “One guy makes it, the other guy doesn’t, then years later he becomes his caddy.”
Although he grew up in Montreal only 20 minutes from the Royal Montreal, Theoret has never watched a round there. He and Pendrith will play practice rounds on the 7,279-yard Blue Course on Tuesday and Wednesday. It could be worse.
Early in his hockey days he played with guys such as Mark Scheifele, Dougie Hamilton, Aaron Ekblad and Carter Verhaeghe. At the end he was hurt and scuffling along for clubs in Norway and the former Czech Republic.
“I am just really excited to be a caddy for the international squad,” Theoret says. “As a Canadian I feel a lot of pride when it comes to trying to knock the U.S. off before a raucous crowd.”