Garcia's split from caddie confirmed

Sergio Garcia's split from caddie Fanny Sunesson after a mere eight tournaments together was confirmed today by the Swede's new boss Fred Funk.

The 43-year-old American had Sunesson staying at his home during the Players Championship and spoke of how down and hurt she felt by the fall-out with the young Spanish star.

Garcia, who missed the halfway cut following an opening 82, made the decision to part company with Nick Faldo's ex-caddie only three months after taking her on.

But Funk believes Sunesson may well have left him anyway and said: "Their personalities did not match.

"It was nothing to do with Fanny's ability. They have just not been gelling as a team.

"Fanny was thinking it was time for her to move on, but they had a meeting on Friday night. She came back down and hurt. I don't think she felt appreciated.

"She is the hardest-working caddie out here and I always said I would take the best caddie available, so now she's mine.

"There were no flare-ups between the two but she was a little irritated by things."

Garcia admitted openly a month ago there were teething problems in the partnership and that Fanny was finding it hard to adjust from Faldo to him.

In their first week Garcia picked up 250,000 US dollars (£155,000) for fifth place at the 12-man Williams World Challenge in Arizona, but he has not been playing well since then.

And entering the Players Championship he said: "It's tough because it's a lot of changing, but we are trying to do the best we can."

Garcia was top amateur at Augusta last year before embarking on a professional career which brought him three victories last season, a runners-up finish behind Tiger Woods at the US PGA Championship and saw him become the youngest player in Ryder Cup history.

He tried England's Paul Stevens on his debut at the Spanish Open then settled on Mark O'Meara's former caddie Jerry Higginbotham, who was dismissed following the Ryder Cup.

The rumour was that Retief Goosen's caddie Glenn Murray could be the one to step into Sunesson's shoes for the Masters.