Off-season change of guard

TIME was when a caddie’s job was to carry the clubs and keep his mouth shut. Those days are long ago, especially where the professional game is concerned, and there has been as much talk about certain European Tour caddies in recent weeks as there has been about their employers.

It will be recalled that last year Colin Montgomerie summarily parted company with Alistair McLean, the man who had been at his side when Monty captured seven successive order of merit titles in succession and almost 13 years in total.

"It was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make but I felt the time had come for a change," he said at the time.

It now seems as if Montgomerie's move exercised the minds of several players and caddies, leading to the break-up of a couple of partnerships that, up to not so very long ago, appeared to have been made in heaven.

Certainly, those close to the two men were taken aback when the news broke of the dissolution of the Paul McGinley-JP Fitzgerald partnership. They had been close friends from their junior days in Leinster and I well remember McGinley, then a professional, travelling all the way to Portstewart in Co Derry on a foul day back in 1992 to support Fitzgerald in his Irish Close final clash with Gary Murphy, who won that particular contest.

When McGinley sacked his Scottish caddie 'Edinburgh' Jimmy Rae in 1998, he turned to JP as the replacement and things went swimmingly, culminating in their famous contribution to Europe's Ryder Cup defeat of the United States at The Belfry last September.

The grapevine has it that Fitzgerald was the one who opted for a change of scenery. There is also a view he was seeking a more lucrative bag and one that would keep him very much to the forefront of the world game.

JP is a clever, ambitious man and has already accumulated a very handsome nest egg from his caddying activities while enjoying a close relationship with some of the richest and most influential people in the country.

As all of this was happening, Darren Clarke was back in Surrey, agonising over the collapse of the central heating system in his palatial new home and contemplating the wisdom or other wise of continuing with Yorkshireman Billy Foster as his caddie. They had enjoyed many great moments together, including two Ryder Cup victories and several tournament successes, although in their case things hadn't always gone smoothly.

Indeed, Foster, who worked for several years with Seve Ballesteros, had broken up with Clarke in the early 90s because he apparently believed his master wasn't trying as hard as he should have been.

When they reunited almost six years ago, Foster accepted that Darren's mindset had changed for the better and the pair duly hit it off so well it never seemed likely that a parting might be in the offing. However, the big Ulsterman decided that if his downward spiral in the world rankings was to be checked (he is now 27th against a career best 9th), now was the time for almost total change.

He signed a new deal to play TaylorMade clubs and Titleist Pro XV balls, hired American Dr Bob Rotella as his sports psychologist, severed his links with coach Pete Cowen in preference for Tiger Woods' old guru Butch Harmon and fired Foster.

"Breaking the news to Billy was the most painful phone call I ever had to make," said Darren. Well it might have been as he more or less echoed the words of Montgomerie a few months earlier.

Foster had been a loyal and above a very able servant, and his hurt at receiving that call is readily understandable to those who studied the pair at close quarters over the past number of years.

And you can only imagine how Foster felt when it was revealed that JP Fitzgerald was to be the new man on Clarke's bag. All sorts of understandable emotions and questions must have raced, not just through his mind but also that of Paul McGinley, up to very recently Darren's next door neighbour, his 'stablemate' at Chubby Chandler's ISM and JP's employer.

The Clarke-Fitzgerald alliance (which won the Chunichi Crowns tournament in Japan a few years ago) clicks into action this week at the Buick Invitational in San Diego where Tiger Woods is also making his seasonal debut. Clarke has spent the last few days in California acquainting himself with the new clubs and balls and seeking the advice of Rotella and Harmon.

He will play 12 events this year on the US Tour where he made more money in 2002 than he did in Europe.

Meanwhile, Padraig Harrington begins his 2003 campaign in the Malaysian Open beginning in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday week. Like Clarke, he has rung a few changes during the closed season.

His contract with Mount Juliet has not been renewed and he will be trying out a new putter that he and putting guru Harold Swash have been working on. But Bob Torrance remains as his coach and Dave McNeilly as caddie in a year that holds out so much for the world's number nine.