Price axes caddie

Phillip Price fired caddie Andy Prodger on the spot today, after finding out he was losing him to Ryder Cup team-mate Colin Montgomerie.

Prodger will be with Montgomerie from next week’s European tour event in Germany, but Price decided not to wait until the end of the Benson and Hedges International Open at The Belfry tomorrow to part company with him.

‘‘I didn’t think it was appropriate for him to carry the bag any more,’’ said the Welshman after a 70 achieved with Pierre Fulke’s caddie (Fulke missed the halfway cut) kept him in the hunt for the title.

‘‘It was a bit embarrassing for me. I think either Prodge or Monty should have had a word with me so that when I was asked about them it did not come as a surprise.

‘‘I don’t mind him joining Monty at all. That’s fair enough. But it was the way it was done that I didn’t really like.’’

Price’s wife Sandra had heard the rumours that Prodger, who was with Nick Faldo for the first two of his six majors and also helped Montgomerie win the 2000 Volvo PGA championship, was the Scot’s choice to take over from Alastair McLean, with whom he parted company last Sunday after 10 successful years together.

‘‘I asked Andy and he said that it was true,’’ she commented.

Price himself added: ‘‘I wonder when he was planning to tell me.’’

Asked if his relationship with Montgomerie might now be affected he said: ‘‘I’m disappointed with him, but I will try not to let it affect things between us.’’

Montgomerie has been using South African Jason Henning this week, but he goes back to his regular employer Robert Karlsson at the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Heidelberg and, with every caddie on the circuit knowing that, Montgomerie received around 100 offers this week. Some were not even from professional caddies.

‘‘Businessmen have written in wanting a change of career, thinking that I might just take them on,’’ said the seven-time European number one.

‘‘Somebody printed what I paid Alastair over all our time together (estimated at around £1million). It’s pretty damn good, so why not?’’

‘‘It’s a nice position to be in, but I’ve got to be very careful and not rush into anything. I’ve got to make a very important decision because I don’t want to have to change again.’’

It took him just five days to make that decision, however.

Prodger’s former employer Faldo said of him joining Montgomerie: ‘‘He’s a very professional caddie. Very quiet, but mind you, all he has got to do is listen!’’

He remembered his first Open win in 1985 when he invited Prodger to join him for the celebrations. ‘‘He said he had to go and fix his mum’s plumbing,’’ Faldo said.

Then, in the Masters play-off against Scott Hoch which Faldo won with a 25-foot putt in near darkness, Prodger told Faldo as he lined up the putt: ‘‘It’s all a bit of a blur to me, guv.’’ end