It has been a long, testing year on the PGA Tour, pushing relationships between caddies and players to breaking point.
Just weeks after Alejandro Tosti’s caddie, Cliff Ellis, walked off the course in a mid-round meltdown at the Biltmore Championship Asheville in September, another has quit mid-tournament.
Veteran caddie Darren Woolard reached breaking point, per GolfWeek, while working for David Lipsky at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan.
After Saturday’s third round, Woolard had enough and told his player to find someone else to be on the bag for the final round.
Lipsky teed off on Sunday with a different caddie rumored to be his trainer after Woolard promptly left the tournament 20 miles south of Tokyo.
The 38-year-old finished tied-54th at three-under par for the tournament after ending with a one-under-par final round without Woolard on the bag.
David Lipsky played his final round at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan with a stand-in caddie
Darren Woolard was on the bag for the first three days then reportedly walked out on Saturday
Their split came after he had a nightmare end to his third round, finishing with two bogeys on his final three holes after his promising start with a five-under 66 in the first round quickly faded.
Lipsky entered the tournament ranked 85th in the season-long FedEx Cup standings and ranked 136th in the Official Golf World Rankings.
He finished runner-up at the Valspar Championship in March but has had a tough season, not registering any other top-10 finishes and missing the cut in six of his last 10 starts.
It is the second mid-tournament caddie exit in quick succession and Cliff Ellis recently opened up on the circumstances behind him storming off the course after dropping Alejandro Tosti’s bag last month.
Tosti claimed ‘he couldn’t keep up with eight pars in a row’ – the only explanation given before Ellis spoke out.
Appearing on Tee Box Golf Radio, Ellis began: ‘I got no problem telling you that the whole week this week was just ludicrous. A lot of just off the wall and insane things were going on all week between him and I.’
He went on to explain that Thursday morning got off to a ‘real hot start’ when the pair argued on the driving range over the placement of the bag, a moment Ellis described as ‘just insane.’
It was mid-round that things really escalated, though, when the pair were walking onto the 18th green, their ninth hole of the day.
Lipsky and Woolard’s abrupt split is the latest interesting caddie incident in recent weeks
Cliff Ellis stormed off the course midway through a tournament with Alejandro Tosti last month
‘I picked a bag up, and he looks at me and he says, “Why is this umbrella in the bag?”‘ Ellis explained.
‘And I said, “Well, you know, what if it rains, or what if you want to use it for sun?” Which is something he does often. You know, he’ll pop the umbrella open for the walk and get under it so he doesn’t get in the sun.
‘And then he kind of said something. He was like, “Well, be stupid to have it out here.” I was like, “Well, are you planning on carrying this bag?” It’s like, “What difference does it make to you?” And so I just tried to brush it off.’
Tosti is then alleged to have made a ‘personal attack’ at Ellis, which he declined to share on the radio show.
‘So I’m like, “you’re gonna call me that over this?” I was like, “I’m gonna let you walk that back real quick, and we can go forward.” Well, he doubled down on it, so I said, “you know what? I am done with you, and I’m out of here.” I said, “I quit.”
