Rory McIlroy set tongues wagging this week after announcing that he would be splitting from his caddie of nine years, JP Fitzgerald.

The world number four, however, was keen to emphasise that it was nothing that Fitzgerald had done, as per reports, but that it was a decision that McIlroy had come to in order to preserve a valuable, close friendship.

The Northern Irishman arrived for practice at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational with Harry Diamond, the best man at his recent wedding, carrying the bag.

McIlroy spoke candidly when faced with a barrage of questions regarding his split with Fitzgerald as he explained the reasoning behind the parting of ways.

“I was getting very hard on him on the course and I don’t want to treat somebody, anybody, like that. I felt like it was the right thing to do and I don’t think there was any good time to do it," he said as per The Telegraph.

"It was a really tough decision to make, but I thought ‘I'm coming to Firestone, I have four tournament rounds to either get to know someone or get used to having someone else on my bag going into the last major of the year’.

"JP knows how much he means to me and what we've achieved together. I would much rather be angry at myself for making a wrong decision than being angry at him, and that was really why.''

The four-time major champion stated that there was no one moment in particular that moved him to force his hand, but rather a "build up of stuff" over the last few month.

However, the rumour mill has been churning, and many are of the belief that Fitzgerald's error on the tenth hole in the third round at The Open was the final straw. After assurances from his caddie that he would not reach the fairway bunker with a three iron, McIlroy swung through and duly found the sand.

McIlroy, who was reportedly furious after the round, sunk for a double bogey that well and truly derailed his title bid.

It will be interesting to see how McIlroy takes to having someone new on hand, having spent nine years with Fitzgerald as his wingman, winning all four of his major titles in that time. Diamond's assignment is an intimidating one, as McIlroy tackles a field consisting 49 of the world's best 50 golfers, including on fire Open Champion Jordan Spieth.

"I hate the term fired, or sacked or axed... I just changed my path a little bit but maybe in the future that path might come back to where it was," said McIlroy, who was seen pacing out his yardages during his preparation for this weekends WGC.

“I'm trying to take ownership of my game a bit more and take more responsibility”. But it is clear that Diamond – a former Irish international who is now a successful businessman - is a long-term possibility.

“We'll see how the next two weeks go, but I'm not ruling anything out,'' McIlroy said. "Jeez, if we have a good fortnight, you never know. But that decision will be up to Harry rather than me. Obviously he's got his own thing going on back home, but a couple of wins might change things."