Danny Willett has split with caddie Jonathan Stewart just over a year after he pulled off one of the biggest Major upsets when he walked away with the Green Jacket at the Masters.
The Major champion has been friends with Stewart since they were in their teens but an argument during April’s RBC Heritage event has ended their memorable partnership, with Willett missing the cut.
“Things are a bit stale and kind of fizzled out,” Willett told BBC Sport.
“It is a shame. But things happen and change, everything happens for a reason.
“We are still working hard to get the game in shape to get back playing the golf we know we can play.”
Hopefully @Danny_Willett parting ways with his caddie will improve his form. It’s bizzare we are saying this about a recent Masters champion pic.twitter.com/RceQuUHDOn
— Worldwide Golf (@WorldwideGolf) May 10, 2017
Not meeting expectations has unfortunately been a familiar case for the 29-year-old since his first Major win. He has not won a tournament since Augusta. This dip of form all began when his brother unleashed his opinions on the US team on social media which infamously caused conflict in the Ryder Cup camp and clearly affected Willett’s mindset. He’s certainly not been the same since, and the results prove this.
Willett has placed outside the top 25 in the three other Majors in 2016 before missing the cut on his return to Augusta in April. In addition, he has recently missed three of the last four cuts which has seen him fall 10 places to 21 in the world since the start of 2017.
In the meantime, Willett will use Sam Haywood at this week’s Players Championship in Florida. Haywood was best man at Willett’s wedding and has recently been on the bag of American player David Lipsky.
Willett thinks the new partnership should work well: “We’ve played a lot of golf together over the last 10 or 15 years. It’s nice having someone who you can speak frankly with. He knows where my game is and when it’s good. I think it’s going to be good.”
Here’s the moment Willett found out he was the 2016 Masters champion:
