Irish Golf Desk

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Caddie hits back for Fisher splashdown

Ollie Fisher's Irish caddie hit back at TV pundit Mark Roe after Sunday's 18th hole splash down in Spain.

Former European Tour veteran Roe blamed Coleraine man Ryan McGuigan when Fisher dumped his tee shot in the drink at final hole of the Open de Andalucia.

The English teen, 19, was leading by a stroke when he knocked a 270-yard three-iron into the lake and eventually lost to Thomas Levet in a play-off.

Blaming the caddie, Roe said: "He should have known where the wind was. He should never give the player a club he can reach with. Instead of a three iron he should have had a four or five iron."

But McGuigan defended himself after helping Fisher achieve the best finish of his fledgling career.

McGuigan said: "Oliver shot two 67s at the weekend playing with one of the best in the world in Lee Westwood, so I obviously did something right.

"It is easy to point the finger of blame and in hindsight you could say it was the wrong club.

"But Mark should know that when you don't know what the conditions were like at the time, it is easy to be critical.

"Nobody talks about the shots that finished stiff on the 15th and 16th. You are always going to have your critics.

"I am not beating myself up over it. Sometimes things go wrong and you learn more from bad experiences that from good ones."

Fisher took all the blame himself, explaining that the swirling wind made club selection difficult.

He said: "It wasn't really adrenaline. It's gone miles down there with the wind and maybe had a hard bounce.

"Maybe I should have hit a hard fade and held it up into the wind a bit. It is quite hard to judge."

Fisher will be in action in this week's Estoril Open de Portugal alongside Irish stars Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Gary Murphy, Damien McGrane and Peter Lawrie.