Robert Allenby withdraws from Canadian Open after another bizarre episode

Robert Allenby is not expected to show up for his scheduled 10:45 a.m. tee time Friday at the Canadian Open.

Which might make the second round a little less entertaining.

The Australian golfer withdrew from the tournament on Thursday and planned to head home following the latest twist in an already bizarre season.

During first-round play, Allenby fired caddie Mick Middlemo after nine holes and finished his round of 81 with a fan from the gallery carrying his bag.

The trouble reportedly began when Allenby and Middlemo disagreed over club selection on a hole that Allenby subsequently triple-bogeyed. The argument nearly led to fisticuffs.

Allenby’s side of the story? “He just told me I could go eff myself. And I said, ‘Look, you need to slow down. I mean just calm down.’ And then he just got right in my face as if he wanted to just beat me up. I said, ‘Stop being a such-and-such and calm down and get back into the game.’ And he just got even closer and closer and I just said, ‘That’s it, you’re sacked,’” the golfer told scoregolf.com.

Middlemo told Golfchannel.com that it was Allenby who lost control and began using abusive language. To ESPN.com he added: “I just wished it had never gone this far. But he is again using the media to make himself look like the victim.”

Earlier this season, during the Sony Open, Allenby turned up dazed and bruised in Honolulu, telling police he had been robbed and thrown from a car after leaving a wine bar at night.

Though a Hawaiian man subsequently pleaded guilty to using the golfer’s credit card to buy clothing and jewelry, police have not made any other arrests in the case. A witness told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Allenby wandered into the streets drunken, passed out and hit his head on a rock.

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