Tiger Woods: Joe LaCava Will Have Minimal Impact on Fallen Former World No. 1

I don't want to undersell the value of a good caddy. A caddy needs to know the game and attitude of the player, but also needs to know the course.

He also needs to know when his man is asking for advice, and when he's asking for confirmation. There is a big difference.

While Joe LaCava is unfamiliar with Tiger Woods—at least from a caddying point of view—he's been around a long time. He'll get to know Woods fine and subsequently fill all of the adequate roles.

But if your only knowledge of a golfer/caddy relationship revolves around Tiger Woods and Steve Williams, you're probably not aware that turnover is not that rare. You can have whatever opinions you want on how the firing took place, or whether or not Woods was scapegoating Williams, but it's not that uncommon.

For years, Augusta mandated that pros used their local caddies at the Masters. So, that's arguably the biggest tournament in the world where every player was forced to use a caddy that they had at best, limited experience with.

As this all relates to Woods, his success will depend on his health, and how much he can make up for being a part-time player since injuring his knee in 2008.

In that respect, the caddy has nothing to do with that. If Woods shows the form that we all used to be in awe of, then he will be fine. The fields are too deep to think that Woods will dominate in the same way that he did in 2000, but we'll still be seeing a lot of Woods in the winner's circle.

If he can't, then we've pretty much seen the end of Tiger as a relevant golfer.

The caddy has nothing to do with any of that.

If Woods loses a tournament by a shot because LaCava gave him a bad read (or wins on a good read), then we can revisit the caddy discussion. But if Woods is at that point consistently, he's going to be fine.

It's up to Woods and only Woods to return to the form that we have grown used to seeing. Once he's there, the caddy can make a difference between first and second place.

But until Woods is consistently in that position, LaCava's impact will be minimal.