McIlroy: I sacked JP because I like him!
Rory McIlroy has admitted his decision to split with caddie JP Fitzgerald was made to help ‘preserve a personal relationship’.
McIlroy sacked Fitzgerald just 11 days after thanking him for helping to turn his game around at The open at royal Birkdale to finish fourth.
The 28-year-old, who was speaking ahead of the WGCBridgestone Invitational in ohio, said: ‘It’s a big change.
‘JP has been a huge part of my life for the last decade. We started in July 2008 and went all the way to July this year.
‘We had a lot of great times on and off the golf course. I still consider JP one of my best friends, one of my closest friends, but sometimes to preserve a personal relationship you have to sacrifice a professional one and that was the decision that I came to.’
The partnership enjoyed victories in four majors. But the world No4 said the pursuit for more success was putting a strain on their relationship.
‘I was getting very hard on him on the golf course and I don’t want to treat somebody, anybody, like that,’ explained McIlroy.
‘I felt like it was the right thing to do and I don’t think there was any good time to do it.
‘It was a very tough decision to make, but I thought I’m coming to Firestone, I have four tournament rounds to either get to know someone or get used to having someone else on my bag going into the last major of the year, and that’s really it.
‘I thanked JP for everything. JP knows how much I think of him, how much he means to me, what we’ve achieved together, and it wasn’t an easy decision, but at the end of the day I felt like it was a change that I needed to make.
‘I got to the point where if I didn’t play a good shot or if I made a wrong decision, I was getting more frustrated at him than I was at myself.
‘I would much rather be angry at myself for making a wrong decision than being angry at him and that was really why (we have split).’ The Northern Irishman will tee off at the Firestone Country Club in Akron alongside Jordan Spieth and Jason Day. At The open last month, he revealed his former caddie had delivered some strong words to him following his poor start to the tournament. McIlroy was five over par after just six holes in the first round at royal Birkdale when Fitzgerald had a quiet word with him. McIlroy said: ‘JP reminded me who I was, basically. He said: “you’re rory McIlroy, what the f*** are you doing?”. I said: “yeah”. At that point, I mumbled and said: “Whatever”. But it did, it helped. It definitely helped. It kept me positive. So he did a great job.’ Fitzgerald has made about £7million in earnings during his nine-year partnership with McIlroy who will have best friend Harry Diamond on the bag for his next two tournaments.
This week in Akron is a primer for the players before the US PGA at Baltusrol next week. McIlroy has won the US PGA twice before — at Kiawah Island in 2012 and Valhalla two years later.
Diamond has worked with the Northern Irishman before. He caddied for a 16year-old McIlroy in a practice round for the 2005 Irish open.
They also teamed up for The Masters Par 3 contest in 2011 before getting together again at the Alfred Dunhill links three years ago.
McIlroy said it was too early to decide whether Diamond would stay on the bag. ‘We’ll see how the next two weeks go, but I’m not ruling anything out,’ he said.
‘It could be two weeks, it could go longer than that.
‘If we have a couple of good weeks here, you never know. We’ll see how it goes.’