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Australian golfer Robert Allenby fires caddie after fight during Canadian Open

Robert Allenby has added another chapter to a tumultuous season by firing his caddie mid-round after a blazing row at the US PGA Tour's Canadian Open.

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Allenby fires caddie, hires spectator

Australian golfer Robert Allenby fires his caddie and hires a spectator to carry his clubs at the US PGA Tour's Canadian Open.

It began when Allenby blamed his caddie, fellow Australian Mick Middlemo, for a wrong club choice when he hit his ball into a creek at Glen Abbey's par-five 13th, his fourth hole and made triple bogey.

"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'," said Allenby, who carded a nine-over 81 first round before withdrawing.

"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.'

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"And he just got even closer and closer and I just said, 'That's it, you're sacked. I will never have you caddie ever again.'"

Allenby said the pair didn't speak for the next five holes before Middlemo dumped his bag at the turn.

"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," Allenby said.

"My nerves have been rattled. I'm in shock."

Middlemo told a somewhat different story of the furious row. 

"We had a discussion about a club, then of course I copped the wrath of that," Middlemo told Sen Radio. "Then unfortunately the personal insults started. I've been called a bad caddie ... but when the personal insults come in and you're being called a fat so-and-so ... I got a little bit peeved by it.

"Then the third time he said it I walked up to him and basically said 'I dare you to say that to me again'.

"He didn't say it again. There was never going to be any violence ... I was just going to put the bag down, get my gear and leave.

"I basically said on the 13th hole 'you don't have to worry about it because I won't be here tomorrow' and he said 'you're right, because I definitely won't have you back.'"

Middlemo also vented his frustration to Fox Sports News, saying he felt hurt by the insults coming from Allenby. 

"I'm not going to whip Robert Allenby's arse because I don't really care," Middlemo told Fox Sports News. "Some players just want a whipping boy and if he wants a whipping boy that's fine, but I also think there's a line to be drawn somewhere you can't cross. If he wants to call me the worst caddy in the world that's fine, I can put up with that, but when you start crossing into personal insults, you have to draw a line in the sand. 

"I've had to put up with it for a long time. The way he spoke to me out there today, no one would put up with that in the work place and I'm not the first caddy to walk off on a golf course with Robert Allenby let me tell you. I'm the fourth caddy. I'm not exactly in an elite club." 

The blow-up comes in the middle of a difficult 2015 for Allenby, who has only made seven cuts this season and in January was beaten and robbed after missing the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

"Everything that's gone on this year, that was the last thing I needed," said Allenby.

"I've been obviously beaten up, robbed and stolen from, what have you in Hawaii and all that. I haven't dealt with it well all year, it's been tough, and then I got something like this.

"He's meant to be one of my mates... this is the worst incident I've ever witnessed as a player.

"I've never been threatened and as he walked away he said, 'I'll be waiting for you in the car park.'

Canadian school teacher Tom Fraser, who had skipped work that day, ended up volunteering to carry Allenby's bag for the rest of the round.

"I thought it was kind of odd and [Allenby] started talking to an official," Fraser told Global News.

"I raised my hand and said, 'I'll carry your clubs'. I thought it was a long shot but I'd offer my services.

"Robert thanked me for helping him out and I thanked him for an experience of lifetime," Fraser, a golfer and principal of Archeron College at Kingston Penitentiary, said.

​AAP with Fairfax Media