McIlroy explains decision to split from caddie after 10 years –

World number four Rory McIlroy has revealed he split from JP Fitzgerald because he was increasingly taking out his frustrations on his caddie of 10 years.

The pair worked together during all four of McIlroy’s major championship victories, but the last of those was in 2014 and McIlroy has endured a winless, injury-plagued season in 2017.

“It’s a big change,” McIlroy told a pre-tournament press conference ahead of the WGCBridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club, where he won three years ago.

“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, a lot of great times on and off the golf course. I still consider JP one of my best friends but sometimes to preserve a personal relationship you might have to sacrifice a professional one and that was sort of the decision I came to in the end.

“I was getting very hard on him on the golf course and I didn’t want to treat him like that.

“It was a really tough decision to make but I thought, ‘I’m coming to Firestone, I have four tournament rounds to get to know someone or get used to having someone else on my bag going into the last major of the year’.

“I thank JP for everything. He knows how much I think of him, what we’ve achieved together but at the end of the day it was a change I needed to make because I got to the point where if I didn’t play a good shot or made a wrong decision I was getting more frustrated at him than I was at myself.

“I’d much rather be angry at myself for making a wrong decision than being angry at him.”

Harry Diamond, the best man at McIlroy’s wedding and a former top amateur player in his own right, will caddy for McIlroy at Firestone and in next week’s US PGA at Quail Hollow.

It remains to be seen whether that arrangement will become permanent, but McIlroy did not rule out working with Fitzgerald again in the future.

“I hate the term fired, or sacked or axed because that’s definitely not what it was,” the Northern Irishman added. “I just changed my path a little bit but maybe in the future that path might come back to where it was.”

Meanwhile, Tommy Fleetwood admits he needs to sharpen up his game in order to contend for a third victory of the season at Akron.

Fleetwood was one of the favourites for last month’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, a course situated just a few miles from his home town of Southport.

The 26-year-old struggled to an opening 76 and made the halfway cut for the first time in four Open appearances on the mark of five over par, before rounds of 66 and 70 saw him finish in a tie for 27th.

“It was great to be spoken of as a possible winner of a major,” Fleetwood said as he prepared to make his debut at Firestone Country Club.

“I think that’s brilliant and the support I had from the home crowd was amazing. I’m not going to say pressure, I can’t really think of the word, but it’s the biggest event that I’ve had in front of a home crowd.

“The world was watching and I was one of the names that was set for winning, so hopefully it’s not going to be the last one that people talk about me to win a major.

“It was a different experience and except for Thursday, where it felt like I played okay but got punished a couple of times, I had a great time.

“I just wish Thursday would have been better, but it was a great week.”

Picture: Getty. Rory McIlroy said he was increasingly taking his frustrations out on his caddie.