Click here for Woosie's web site
Click here to e-mail Woosie

Ian Woosnam insists he is not going to sack the caddie who forgot to count his clubs - a cock-up that cost him £218,334, possibly The Open and perhaps another Ryder Cup cap.

The 43-year-old finished three shots behind winner David Duval at Royal Lytham after being penalised two strokes for carrying 15 clubs and not the permitted 14.

While missing out on a second major title 10 years after his first was the biggest disappointment, Woosnam would have gone fifth in the Ryder Cup table even by finishing second.

Instead the former world number one, who says he will resign the vice-captaincy and play if he qualifies, is 12th and in a dogfight for an automatic top-10 spot in the eight remaining events.

The extra driver was discovered on the second tee after the Welshman had just birdied the first to go back into the joint lead.

Suddenly two behind, Woosnam could never get back on terms and afterwards said: "It took me a few holes to recover and didn't really get it out of my head all the way round."

But on the future of his Irish caddie Miles Byrne, who only linked up with him at the Benson and Hedges tournament in May, he added: "It's the biggest mistake he will ever make and he will have a severe bollocking.

"But he is a good lad and I am not going to sack him.

"He committed the ultimate sin and he will not do it again. I am surmising that he is feeling as sick as a parrot.

"I suppose I should have checked, but that's what you pay a caddie for. It's not my job to check the bag."

The blunder occurred after Woosnam tried out two drivers on the practice range. He thought the one he discarded had been taken back to his locker in the clubhouse, but somehow it found its way back into his bag.

Because the first hole at Lytham is a par three, he did not spot it there.

If he had teed off the second as well there would have been a four-stroke penalty, but it was as they went to the tee there that Byrne looked and realised what had happened.

"You are going to go ballistic," he told Woosnam. "We have two drivers in the bag."

Woosnam's reaction was to take hold of the extra one - complete with head cover - and sling it away.

"I felt like I had been kicked in the teeth. It's hard enough being level with the world's best players, but to give them a two-shot start... I was not feeling very enthusiastic about it.

"That's how it goes. There were two big head covers and he should have spotted it.

"I'll have to win next year now!

"When I got plugged in a bunker on the fourth hole, everything was going against me it seemed. I felt like picking the ball up and walking off.

"But I like to fight - in all sorts of ways (he boxed in his younger days) - and I showed my fighting spirit."

Byrne said: "No excuses - the buck stops with me. End of story.

"If I knew how it happened, it (the second driver) would not have been in there."

Hugh Campbell, chairman of the championship committee, had stated that Woosnam got to the first tee only 30 seconds before he was due to start.

Woosnam and Byre claimed it was around three minutes, but, whatever it was, the usual reminder from an official about the number of clubs did not take place.

"Usually you ask them to check the number of clubs just in case an extra one has been put in there by somebody else by mistake," said Campbell, "but most times they look at you as if you are a congenital idiot for asking.

"It obviously would have helped Ian on that occasion, though."

David Rickman, the Royal and Ancient Club's rules secretary, added: "It's such an obvious thing it seems ridiculous that it has happened.

"And for it to happen at the very moment he took the lead is such a terrible shame for him."

The actual rule in question is Rule 4-4 covering "maximum of 14 clubs".

It states: "The player shall start a stipulated round with not more than 14 clubs. Penalty for breach: stroke play - two strokes for each hole at which any breach occurred; maximum penalty per round, four strokes."