McIlroy picks Diamond to get out of rough
Rory McIlroy has turned to his best friend to undertake emergency caddie duties for the final major of the year after the shock dismissal of JP Fitzgerald.
McIlroy is playing in this week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Akron where Harry Diamond will take his bag and he will also be on the world No 4’s shoulder at next week’s PGA Championship.
Quail Hollow will be McIlroy’s last chance to win a major in 2017 and so avoid a third successive campaign without a major title.
Even though there have long been calls for him to split with Fitzgerald — indeed, since his infamous Masters meltdown in 2011 — few expected it to occur now.
The four-time major winner finished in a tie for fourth at the Open and during the Royal Birkdale event was effusive in his praise of the bag man, with whom he worked for almost a decade and won four major titles and 18 other tournaments. McIlroy revealed it was his fellow Irishman who snapped him out of his first round mire, telling him: “You’re Rory McIIroy — what the f — are you doing?”
“JP did a great job,” McIlroy said after recovering from five over after six to record a one-over round. “He kept me positive out there and that was very much appreciated.”
However, two days later, McIlroy’s charge for a second Claret Jug was derailed when he took a double bogey on the 10th, courtesy of the wrong club selection off the tee. Again, the spotlight picked out Fitzgerald.
In caddie circles, the development was not greeted with too much surprise. And do not expect an overload of sympathy.
“It was coming,” one caddie said. Fitzgerald’s meticulousness has been called into question by his peers, some of whom believe the mistake at Birkdale was merely the latest error.
Within the game, McIlroy has long been urged to employ a new caddie, but the famously strong-willed Northern Irishman remained fiercely loyal to Fitzgerald, who previously worked for Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley.
Diamond could even prove the permanent solution. A childhood friend who grew up in the same Belfast suburb of Holywood, he is a fine player in his own right, having played with McIlroy in the Ulster youth team and represented the Irish senior team.
The pair are extremely close, with Diamond reportedly acting as best man at McIlroy’s wedding to Erica Stoll.