PGA golfer Robert Allenby shot a 9-over 81 in the first round of the RBC Canadian Open on Thursday, and he felt his caddie was at least partially to blame for the horrendous day.
So he fired him after a few holes.
As Adam Stanley of PGATour.com notes, Allenby took the advice of his caddie, Mick Meddlemo, at the par-5 13th hole and hit an 8-iron for his approach shot. Allenby felt that a 7-iron was the proper club, but he listened to Meddlemo. The Australian ended up in a creek and made a triple-bogey, which led to an argument.
“I said to him, ‘You know this happens every week. This has happened for like, the last three or four or five months. We keep making bad mistakes and you’re not helping me in these circumstances,'” Allenby later explained. “He just lost the plot at me. He got right in my face as if he wanted to just beat me up.
“I said, ‘Stop being a such-and-such and calm down and get back into the game.’ And he just got even closer and closer and I just said, ‘That’s it, you’re sacked.’ I said, ‘I will never have you caddie again.’”
Allenby, who had started his round at the 10th hole, carried his own bag until he got to hole No. 1. At that point, a local school principal named Tom Fraser shouted to Allenby that he would be happy to carry his bag for the front nine. Allenby accepted the offer.
“To my surprise he said, ‘Come on,’” a smiling Fraser recalled. “I waved at my friends, gave them the thumb’s up. Sharing the stories with them afterwards was great. Usually I carry my own bag, but this one was a little heavier than usual.”
Allenby birdied No. 1, but he still shot a 3-over 38 on his final nine holes of the day. He withdraw from the tournament, saying he was “in shock” and calling the issue with Meddlemo the “worst incident I’ve ever witnessed as a player.”
The 44-year-old Aussie certainly isn’t the first player we have seen blow up on his caddie during a round (right, Bubba Watson?), but a mid-round firing is incredibly rare. Here’s the most famous player to do it:
Photo: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports
