PGA Tour caddie Todd Montoya came out as gay in an exclusive interview with Golf Channel ahead of The Players; Montoya: "I feel like I'm walking on air. Brian [Stuard] has given me the greatest gift that I could ever get, I feel like he's given me my freedom."
Wednesday 9 March 2022 16:15, UK
Todd Montoya has been a golf caddie for nearly two decades, initially on the mini-tours and more recently on the PGA Tour, although he has – until recently – hidden a secret from most of the golfing community.
The New Mexico native, who has looped for a host of players before taking over Brian Stuard's bag in 2016, opened up about his sexuality in a sit-down interview with Golf Channel and revealed why he had decided to previously limit who knew about him being gay.
"I think that it was mostly because that was my preconceived notion about the society of people that probably encompass the golf community," Montoya admitted to Golf Channel. "I just felt like I would have a better opportunity to get and keep a job if I kept it hidden.
"Something that you kept secret for so many years, amongst people you consider your friends and your co-workers, over the course of time, you grow close to them. Until people that I care about know that I'm gay, they really don't know me for my entirety."
Montoya admitted his sexuality to Doug LaBelle in 2006, after acting as his bag man as he secured his PGA Tour card, although continued to hide his sexuality from the rest of the golf world - other than a very limited number of close friends - for the next 15 years.
"I called him up and said 'Hey Dougie, there's something really important I want to tell you' and I said 'I'm gay'," Montoya explained. "He paused and he said 'it doesn't make any difference whatsoever'. When someone that is important to you accepts you for who you are, it's a big deal."
Montoya would work with Stuard for four years without telling him about his sexuality, a secret he said "weighed him down", before deciding at The Northern Trust to open up and tell him the truth.
"He told me that he'd been living with for a number of years and it would be tough thing to have to feel like you couldn't tell anybody," Stuard said. "I just wanted to make sure that he knew that it didn't change the way I felt about him, he's always been the same Todd to me."
Montoya added: "I went out for dinner that evening and a text came through from Brian that said 'I just wanted to say thanks for another successful year and I just wanted to say that I really appreciate that you told me and that I feel very grateful that you consider me close enough for you to open up. Don't think for one second that it makes me think any differently of you and the person you are.'
"I feel 100 per cent different. I feel like I'm walking on air. Brian has given me the greatest gift that I could ever get, I feel like he's given me my freedom."
Montoya has been grateful for the support given to him, having found it difficult to be his authentic self for so long, with the caddie hoping that his decision to speak out may inspire anyone that may be struggling about their sexuality.
"My hope is that they can see someone who has taken that step and found in their life that it is okay to be yourself and be out," Montoya said.
