Golf:Darren Clarke has parted company with the caddie that helped him win his first major championship in the British Open at Sandwich in July.

ISM, the player's management team, said that Clarke's split with John Mulrooney was amicable and had come after he missed the cut at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday.

The 43-year-old Northern Irishman will keep his options open on a replacement bagman as he practises over the next three weeks ahead of his return to competitive golf at the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Arizona on Feb. 22.

Mulrooney took over as Clarke's full-time caddie after the former Ryder Cup player won the Iberdrola Open in Majorca in May.

Clarke has been out of sorts since his victory at Sandwich, his best result a 20th-place finish at the Volvo Golf Champions tournament in South Africa two weeks ago.

He slumped to rounds of 72 and 81 at the European Tour event in Abu Dhabi.

The pair have had a chequered history with Bray native Mulrooney revealing that he almost gave Clarke the sack the week before their famous Open win at Sandwich.

“We have had our ups and downs and we turned up here hardly speaking. Was I almost sacked? Well, he almost ended up getting the boot as well,” Mulrooney told Irishgolfdesk.com.

The pair fell out during the previous week’s Scottish Open. “But that’s the way with caddying. Everybody goes through it. It’s the kind of game we are in. It is a very psychological game and when things don’t click and you misread each other sometimes, it is very easy to fall out.

“Caddies joke about the stuff that goes on when they talk in the caddies’ lounge. It’s hilarious afterwards, but it is not funny when it’s happening.

“We call it ‘The Madness’. Golfers get the madness. It’s the kind of game that can drive you mad.”