CADDIE SACK NEEDED

RORY MCILROY sacked his caddie of nine years after growing tension in their relationship caused the four-times major winner to question his own behaviour on the golf course, he said yesterday. McIlroy parted company with J.P. Fitzgerald last week after the British Open and will have his best friend Harry Diamond on his bag for the next two weeks. “Player/caddie relationships have their ups and downs. There was probably a few too many of those over the past year or so,” McIlroy told reporters in Ohio on the eve of the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational. “It was one of those times I felt I needed to mix something up a bit ... It was just a build-up of stuff that I felt I needed to make that change.”