Leishman maintains the lead at BMW

Reigning FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy has fired his caddie and will use his best friend at this week’s World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and next week’s PGA Championship, according to published reports. Officialsportsbetting.com cited a source it did not identify as saying McIlroy has parted ways with J.P. Fitzgerald. They have worked together for the past nine years, during which McIlroy has won four major championships and reached No. 1 in the world. McIlroy is due to speak about the change Wednesday during his previously scheduled news conference at the Bridgestone Invitational. The Belfast Telegraph reported that McIlroy’s caddie at the next two tournaments will be Harry Diamond, a childhood friend from McIlroy’s hometown of Holywood in Northern Ireland. Diamond was the best man at McIlroy’s wedding to American Erica Stoll in April. According to the Telegraph, Diamond has prior experience on McIlroy’s bag. At the 2005 Irish Open, Diamond caddied for the then-16-year-old McIlroy in a practice round. They were also together at the 2011 Masters during the Par 3 contest, as well as the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in 2014. McIlroy, having battled through injury issues earlier this year, has made just nine starts this season on the PGA TOUR. He has five top-10s but no wins and is currently ranked 53rd in the FedExCup standings. His last win was the TOUR Championship in September when he claimed the FedExCup. He’s currently ranked fourth in the world after his tie for fourth at The Open Championship. If he doesn’t win next week at Quail Hollow – a course on which he’s won the Wells Fargo Championship twice – it will be his third consecutive year without a major victory. Before joining McIlroy, Fitzgerald spent several years as the caddie for Irishman Paul McGinley, the successful 2014 European Ryder Cup captain. McIlroy was a member of that winning team. “They’ve had a great partnership, culminating in four Majors and a huge amount of wins. They both can walk away from the relationship with really good memories,â€� McGinley told the Belfast Telegraph. “There’s a sell-by date with caddies, which is regularly illustrated on Tour. They’ve shared a lot of experiences, and they’ll walk away as friends, I’m sure.” It is the second significant player-caddie split this summer. Phil Mickelson and Jim “Bones” Mackay decided to end 25 years together. Mackay since has taken a job as an analyst on the course at NBC Sports.

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Brandon Harkins will tell you that he has a pretty adventurous palate. He never acquired a taste for that thick, salty, black spread that the Australians call Vegemite, though. “Not a fan,â€� Harkins said. “I like a lot of things — but Vegemite, probably not again.â€� But Harkins did become a fan of Aussie Rules Football during the eight months he spent Down Under after graduating from high school. His cousins, who live in Brisbane, Australia, introduced him to the sport. It was a good time to be a Brisbane Lions fan, too. The AFL team, which appeared in four consecutive Grand Finals from 2001-2004, was one of the most feared in the league. “I’d go to a ton of games,â€� recalls the 31-year-old Harkins, who grew up following the San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers — when he wasn’t traveling around Australia and New Zealand, that is. Harkins took full advantage of the gap year gift his mother gave him before heading to play golf at Chico State. “I didn’t even bring my golf clubs,â€� Harkins said. “So I had all this time away from golf and I came back totally ready to play again. (I was) totally ready to go.â€� Harkins’ cousins in Brisbane provided a home base and offered well-informed travel advice. Sometimes they even joined him on trips, as did his mom, his younger brother and his best friend. “They said go here, go there,â€� Harkins recalls. “They helped tremendously.â€� But there were six or seven trips where Harkins, who had gotten an international driver’s license, struck out on his own, often staying in hostels or with friends he met along the way. He went solo to Sydney, Melbourne and Byron Bay, which he remembers as a “really hippie place,â€� as well as up to Cairns near the Great Barrier Reef. “I was totally on my own up in Cairns,â€� Harkins says. “I was probably on my own for a week there. That was a little bit of a learning experience for me. That was probably my first hostel I’ve ever stayed in and by myself.â€� The highlights for Harkins were many during his eight-month excursion. Sydney and its famous Harbour Bridge. The Great Ocean Road outside Melbourne, a city that reminded him of the Bay Area in California where he grew up. “I also really liked getting to know their culture,â€� Harkins says. “It’s a little bit different down there. It’s a little bit slower of a pace and it just seems like from what I was used to that no one was in a rush for anything. That was really cool to see.â€� Harkins, who said he’d like to be featured in Field and Stream Magazine for catching a world record bass someday, saw all kinds of wildlife in his travels, too, including fairy penguins. He hiked. He watched the surfers at Bells Beach and Bondi Beach with great interest — Harkins even tried to learn how to hang ten “to no luck,â€� he said. Harkins also spent some time on New Zealand’s North Island, where he tried his hand at black water rafting. After putting on a full-body wetsuit, he rappelled about 200 feet down into a dark cave with stalagmites and stalactites. “That actually was a little scary,â€� Harkins recalled. “You’re with a guide and you get down and it’s pitch black and you turn your headlamp on. “And then you’re on these zip-lines in these caves. It was really interesting. You’re like walking through the water in the caves. It was a cool experience.â€� Harkins’ travels didn’t stop when he got back from Australia, either. Since graduating from Chico State with a degree in psychology, he has played professionally in nearly a dozen different countries. Harkins even made a 32-hour commute from Nicaragua to Paris about 18 months ago so he could help his mother-in-law celebrate her 60th birthday. Harkins is once again traveling to new places, albeit in his native United States, as a rookie on the PGA TOUR. The Web.com Tour graduate has already posted two top-10 finishes in 10 starts and has found it to be “everything you think it is and more.â€� “I’m just kind of taking it one step at a time, but it’s been a lot of fun,â€� Harkens said.

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Louis Oosthuizen was forced to withdraw from the European Tour’s Joburg Open after injuring two fingers on his left hand between two airport luggage trolleys.

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