McIlroy sacrificed bagman to maintain their friendship

Rory McIlroy delivered golf’s equivalent of ‘‘it’s not you, it’s me’’ when explaining that he sacked JP Fitzgerald because he was placing too much of the ‘‘blame’’ and ‘‘anger’’ on his long-time caddie.

The world No 4 turned up for a practice roundat the WGC Bridgestone Invitational yesterday with his best friend, and best man at his recent wedding, Harry Diamond, on the bag.

And although he highlighted that the duo could become a fixed item depending on this week and next week’s US PGA Championship, the questions inevitably focused on his reasons for dismissing Fitzgerald after nine years and four major titles together.

McIlroy revealed he did so by phone last Tuesday after the Open at Royal Birkdale. ‘‘Sometimes to preserve a personal relationship you have to sacrifice a professional one,’’ he said. ‘‘I was getting very hard on him on the course and I don’t want to treat somebody, anybody, like that. 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 really 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’.

‘‘JP knows how much he means to me and what we’ve achieved together. I would much rather be angry at myself for making a wrong decision than being angry at him.’’

McIlroy claimed there was ‘‘no particular moment’’ which prompted the decision - ‘‘just a buildup of stuff’’. But the word among the caddies is that Fitzgerald’s error on the 10th tee during the third round of the Open was the last straw.

Fitzgerald assured his employer that he could not reach the fairway bunker on the dog-leg with a threeiron. McIlroy duly caught sand and ended up with a double bogey, which fatally derailed his charge.

It is understood that after the round McIlroy was in a fury and this was viewed as rather more significant than the ‘‘you’re Rory McIlroy - what the f... are you doing’’ pep talk which garnered so many headlines after the golfer’s firstround recovery.