Rory McIlroy’s former manager has been blasted for comments he made about Tommy Fleetwood’s caddie. McIlroy and Fleetwood played together over the first two days at The Open Championship, with the home hero ending day two at under three under par, seven shots off the lead held by Scottie Scheffler, with Fleetwood two further back from his Ryder Cup team-mate.
The Englishman was hoping for a strong performance at Portrush to help erase the memory of his heartbreaking near miss at the Travelers Championship. Leading by three shots going into the final four, Fleetwood was on course for his maiden PGA Tour title.
However, he was overhauled by US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley after three-putting on the 18th to lose by just one shot. Following that gut-wrenching defeat, Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler, who represented McIlroy until 2011, took aim at Fleetwood’s caddie Ian Finnis, blaming the bagman for his choice on the 72nd hole.
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Per GolfMagic, Chandler said: “He should have won at the Travelers, shouldn’t he? I’m not throwing Ian Finnis under the bus, but nobody looked at the caddie at all when he didn’t win that last one.
“The caddie was half to blame. The caddie was involved in the decision-making. It was the wrong club at 18. It’s funny, people gun for certain people, don’t they? Finnis has escaped it. You think of the stick [McIlroy’s caddie] Harry Diamond gets.”
However, renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon, who has worked closely with Scheffler, has jumped to the defence of Finnis. He said: “For Chubby to say that, it’s just inaccurate. Tommy’s won worldwide with Ian.
“If you look at Tommy’s career with Ian, they’ve done a great job together. Ian has been on most of his wins, and under the extreme amount of pressure, you want someone that you can trust and rely on by your side.
“Tommy and Ian are a great fit. That is absolutely just a terrible statement from someone whose opinion I wouldn’t trust anyway.”
Kenyon also rubbished claims that putting is a weak point of Fleetwood’s game, adding: “Tommy Fleetwood is a good putter. I think there’s a really horrendous narrative around his putting, which is perpetuated by certain facets of the media which don’t look at stats.