Lee Westwood is to stick with a winning team and retain his girlfriend as caddie after splitting with long-time bagman Billy Foster.
Helen Storey was at Westwood's side at Sun City as the 45-year-old won his first title in more than 3½ years and joked afterwards he would have "to work out the percentages".
Dream team: Lee Westwood celebrating victory with his caddy and girlfriend Helen Storey.Credit:EPA
But back in Yorkshire, Billy Foster knew the sums exactly. A professional caddie would normally be entitled to 10 per cent of the winnings and, as the first prize at the Nedbank Challenge was nigh on £1 million ($A1.79 million), that would have amounted to £100,000.
However, Westwood and Foster parted ways at the Turkish Airlines Open the previous week after the golfer had said he wished to change the way the popular duo operated.
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"Lee wanted to work differently to everything we had ever done, which basically meant me just carrying the bag," Foster said. "I struggled to adapt to that as a caddie and it created a bit of an uncomfortable atmosphere on the course.
"Ultimately, it was no good for Lee and not fair on me. It has been a great 10 years of my life and we had many special times. I can only wish him good luck moving forward – although I do feel he could have waited more than a week before winning a million dollars!"
Foster – who has also caddied for Seve Ballesteros, Darren Clarke, Sergio Garcia, Thomas Bjorn and, very briefly, Tiger Woods – will not be short of offers and inevitably there will be speculation that Rory McIlroy could be on the phone.
Westwood and Foster began working together 10 years ago, enjoying 13 wins and reaching world No.1, as well as recording eight top-three results in the majors. But Westwood has been increasingly relying on his own expertise.
He no longer uses a coach and, as Foster has intimated, he has been doing his own yardages. This has allowed him to bring in not only Storey, but also his 16-year-old son, Sam, for the occasional week. It would be no surprise to see him and Storey sharing future duties.
Storey, a personal trainer from Newcastle, will again be on the bag in Dubai this week where Westwood, at the very least, will be looking for enough world ranking points to lift him from 64th to inside the top 50 to earn a spot in next year's Masters.
"Lee's had a few close ones recently and I'm so proud of him and how he's continued to play so well," Storey said.
However, she is not sure she has started a trend with wives and girlfriends caddying.
"A few might and certainly there are some that won't. It just works for us."
The Telegraph, London
