Golf: Rory McIlroy breaks up with long-time caddy to preserve friendship

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland looks on with caddie JP Fitzgerald during the Open Championship. Photo/Getty Images

Rory McIlroy delivered golf's equivalent of "it's not you, it's me", sacking JP Fitzgerald because he was placing too much "blame" and "anger" on his long-time caddy.

The world No 4 turned up for a practice round at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational with 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 revelaed he did so by phone last week, after the British 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 and that was really why.''

McIlroy claimed there was "no particular moment" that prompted the decision - "just a build-up of stuff" - but the word among caddies is that Fitzgerald's error on the 10th tee during the third round of the Open was the last straw.

Fitzgerald, who previously worked for the likes of Ernie Els, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, assured his employer that he could not reach the fairway bunker on the dogleg with a three-iron. 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 certainly, for those in possession of the yardage books, this was viewed as rather more significant than the "you're Rory McIlroy - what the f--- are you doing" pep talk that garnered so many headlines after the golfer's first-round recovery.

"That was just more of a case of giving credit where credit's due," McIlroy said, before revealing that he could one day link up again with Fitzgerald. "I hate the term 'fired', or 'sacked' or 'axed' ... I just changed my path a little bit, but maybe in the future that path might come back to where it was."

For now, it will be intriguing to see how he and Diamond fare in Akron, Ohio, in a field containing 49 of the world's top 50 players, including Open champion Jordan Spieth. McIlroy actually won the last time he played Firestone, but that was back in his glorious summer of 2014.

McIlroy was seen stepping out his yardages during his practice and declared: "I'm trying to take ownership of my game a bit more and take more responsibility."

But it is clear that Diamond, a former Irish international who is now a successful businessman, is a long-term possibility.

"We'll see how the next two weeks go, but I'm not ruling anything out,'' McIlroy said. "Jeez, if we have a good fortnight, you never know.

"But that decision will be up to Harry, rather than me. Obviously, he's got his own thing going on back home, but a couple of wins might change things."

-Daily Telegraph