Spain's Sergio Garcia has sacked his American caddie after a disappointing performance in the Taiheiyo Masters in Gotemba, Japan.
Jerry Higginbotham, a veteran on the PGA Tour, was the caddie attacked in a bar following the USA's Ryder Cup victory and admitted his disappointment at his dismissal.
"Sergio's only 19 and he wants everything. He'll probably learn down the road that just because you have one bad week it's not the caddie's fault," said Higginbotham.
"I thought our personalities clicked pretty well at the beginning and maybe it fell apart at the end.
"I'm either getting beat up or I'm getting fired," joked Higginbotham, who became Garcia's caddie after being dropped by Mark O'Meara following the US Masters in April.
He was also Garcia's caddie in the USPGA Championship in August when the 19-year-old Spaniard finished second after hitting the shot of the season from behind a tree in the closing stages of the final round.
Nick Faldo's long-serving caddie Fanny Sunesson is among the names being touted to take over Higginbotham's job.
Meanwhile, Faldo has admitted he is upset at not being asked to defend England's World Cup of Golf in Kuala Lumpur.
Faldo and David Carter won the World Cup in Auckland last November but the title holders are represented at this year's tournament in Malaysia, which starts tomorrow, by Ryder Cup captain Mark James and Peter Baker.
"I feel pretty bad that we were not asked," said 42-year-old Faldo, who is hoping a new chance at wedded bliss will exorcise personal problems that have been plaguing his golf.
Faldo confirmed he would be marrying a third time to Valerie Bercher, a 26-year-old Swiss public relations executive, in the summer of 2001.
"I've gone through a rough ride with the divorce and everything," he said.
"But I'm looking forward to the future with her. She's a great girl and it's real nice to be with her off the golf course," he added. He proposed to Bercher three weeks ago in Paris.
Many thought Faldo would marry Brenna Cepelak, an American student he left his wife and three children for in 1995.
But the interview in Singapore's Straits Times said the pair had separated a year ago with Cepelak receiving £300,000 as a "farewell gift" from him.
Faldo, a former world number one, has slumped to 164 in the world rankings.
"I was emotionally drained, hemmed in by my divorce lawyers. It demanded all my strength and I wasn't getting results," he said.
"My golf was bad. I was losing my game. It was just slipping away from me and in all that turmoil there seemed nothing I could do."
Faldo is determined to make his new relationship succeed and said: "This one's going to last because I'm not going through all that again."
Scotland will have Colin Montgomerie and Paisley's Dean Robertson, winner of this year's Italian Open title, carrying their hopes in Malaysia.
The Australasian golf tour needs to expand and have more joint tournaments with other tours to avoid being left behind by fast-growing overseas circuits, the Australasian PGA executive director, Arthur Sanderson, said yesterday.
Sanderson said potential future changes included the creation of a "super series" of tournaments in the Asian region and the European and Australasian tours jointly sanctioning an event in Dubai.
