Matt Wallace Splits With Caddie Dave McNeilly

The pair parted ways after their T27th finish at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational

Matt Wallace Splits With Caddie Dave McNeilly

Matt Wallace is on the lookout for a new bag man after it has emerged that he and caddie Dave McNeilly split after the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational.

The pair won four European Tour titles together in 2018 but the relationship has now ended after controversy surrounding Wallace’s actions towards the Northern Irishman.

Wallace was heavily criticised across social media when he appeared to verbally abuse McNeilly during the BMW International Open.

He later said that he chatted to McNeilly about the incident straight after the round and the pair “hugged it out and moved on.”

However, just a few months later the partnership has ended after Wallace phoned McNeilly up four days after the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational in Memphis.

“He was sort of regretting that he had to do it,” McNeilly told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.

“There wasn’t a [stated] reason but if there was a reason it would have been more like, he didn’t like the way he was behaving towards me on the golf course.

“He wasn’t prepared to persevere with that. The sad thing was I was prepared to persevere and I actually thought we were starting to get there, to get over that hurdle, where we were starting to work well together.

“I’m not saying, ‘poor old me. I’ve been scapegoated’.

“You have got to take responsibility for your part in it.

“The reason why I enjoyed working for Matt Wallace was because of that fire. It’s a caddie’s dream to have a player who is going to give you his all.

“This just isn’t all about Matt Wallace. I have to be able to learn and adapt and caddie for him.

“I have to be able to learn the right words to say to him which are not going to fan those flames and keep giving him messages which are going to keep him focused.

“And maybe an area where I wasn’t so good was that I didn’t set boundaries down to Matt and say, ‘no, you’re not going to cross a line in the sand’ [in terms of losing his temper]. I was more focused on trying to make it work.”

McNeilly, 67, has caddied for the likes of Nick Faldo, Nick Price and Padraig Harrington in the past.

He overcame prostate cancer in 2014 to return to Tour before his successful run with Wallace.

It remains to be seen where he goes next and who the Englishman employs.

Wallace is currently 26th in the world and 5th in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai.