Fired caddy calls Allenby a ‘bully’
A day after Robert Allenby fired his caddy mid-round and had a school principal from Kingston, Ont., carry his bag the rest of the way, the dismissed caddy gave his side of the story. Mick Middlemo told ESPN that there was never a disagreement about which club to use on the fourth hole, and that Allenby simply hit a poor shot into the water, after which he called the caddy a “fat (expletive)” loud enough that the gallery overheard. Middlemo, an Australian like Allenby, said the player had crossed a line. Fox Sports Australia says this is the fourth time a caddy has walked off the course on Allenby. “He likes to bully caddies,” Middlemo told Fox Sports. “You couldn’t get away with that in any workplace in the world, but somehow he thinks it’s appropriate on a golf course.” Allenby told ScoreGolf on Thursday that his former caddy had threatened him after the confrontation, and the player withdrew from the Canadian Open. As the coup de grace, Middlemo suggested that Allenby’s much-publicized mugging in Hawaii might not have been as the player described, after all. In January the player told police he had been beaten and robbed after a dinner out — the caddy was in attendance — but followup reports speculated that Allenby might have injured himself in a fall, possibly after drinking. “Again he is using the media to make himself look like the victim,” Middlemo told ESPN.
DeLaet pulls out
On a day when several Canadians fired low rounds, Graham DeLaet had to withdraw after four holes with a thumb injury suffered on Thursday. “I wanted to keep trying, but it was just kind of pointless,” said the man whose face — and corporate sponsors — are on banners all over Glen Abbey. The injury, a sprain or hyperextension of his left thumb, meant DeLaet was unable to control his ball. “I think I needed to shoot 3- or 4-under to make the cut today, and I felt like a 5-handicap, and that’s pretty hard for a 5-handicap to do.” When David Hearn saw that DeLaet’s name was no longer on the leaderboard “my heart went out to him. I know how much this tournament means to him.” Adam Hadwin followed an opening 74 with a 67 that should allow him to play on the weekend, while two Canadian amateurs, Austin Connelly and Blair Hamilton, will also play on Saturday after rounds of 68 and 65, respectively, on Friday. Connelly, a Texan with dual citizenship, recently started playing under the Canadian flag on the national amateur team.