Robert Allenby fires caddie mid-round at Canadian Open, has fan carry bag

Robert Allenby fired his caddie mid-round on Thursday following a dustup at the RBC Canadian Open, leaving a local man with the opportunity to carry his bag for the back nine.

Allenby gave the following explanation for the argument with caddie Mick Middlemo after his opening-round 81 in Oakville, Ontario, according to Jason Logan of scoregolf.com.

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. And he just lost the plot at me. He just told me I could go eff myself. And I said, 'Look, you need to slow down. I mean just calm down.' And then he just 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 ever again.' And we never spoke for the rest of the (first nine) and when we got to 18 we walked off and he said some smartass remark to me and I said, 'You don't deserve to be caddying out there.' And he just got right in my face and threatened me so I said, 'Go.' So he left.

Tom Fraser, a school principal attending the event, carried the Australian's bag the rest of the way after offering his services. The whole affair was reminiscent of David Simms firing Roy McAvoy mid-round in the movie "Tin Cup" before picking someone out of the crowd to finish the round.

"He did a great job," Allenby said of Fraser. "He did everything he was told. He was a nice guy. I'm really thankful that he helped me out. It was nice to have someone friendly on the bag who didn’t want to threaten me."

It was another bizarre incident for the veteran Allenby, who earlier this year claimed to be the victim of kidnapping, robbery, and mugging at the Sony Open in Hawaii. The veracity of his story has been a subject of debate.