Caddie's Role: There is rarely an honourable way to discharge someone from their duties. It usually ends up with one party feeling like a jilted lover. Last year at this time it was Andy Prodger feeling miffed at his dismissal from Colin Montgomerie. The flip side of this ending was Stephen Leaney wondering where he went wrong when his caddie told him that he was going to move over to the Montgomerie camp, writes Colin Byrne

Hirings and firings are the order of the day in world professional golf, never has the merry-go-round spun so fast and furiously and in so many directions. Loyalty counts for absolutely nothing. It is the nature of the business where there are virtually no contracts. It can be done and so it is. Looking back at last year's partings, it would appear that the jilted ones got the upper hand eventually. Stephen Leaney has gone forward with his new porter and Andy Prodger has enjoyed considerable success with his new man KJ Choi. For a good caddie there is always a future.

Dave McNeilly  got his marching orders under confusing circumstances a couple of weeks ago at the German Masters. His boss, Padraig Harrington, was as usual contending yet another title and failed by a narrow margin in St Leon-Rot. I had had dinner with his diligent, conscientious and cheerful porter Dave the night before the final round. No mood or hints betrayed that the next day was to be his last with his employer of five and a half years.

Needless to say when the rumours started to seep out from under the doors of the press room the tour and in particular Dave McNeilly were shocked by the news. No matter how much spin his ex-employer put on it, his caddie felt like he had been whacked over the back of the head. It may have sounded like an agreement had been reached over afternoon tea, but McNeilly's stunned reaction to his dismissal creates some uncertainty about the matter.

Of course there is no easy way to say goodbye after such a relatively long relationship for a modern caddie and player. But an unceremonious dumping on the Sunday of a tournament that was only lost by a shot was less than dignified. Surely McNeilly should have been the first to know. The only explanation I can think of is that one party was talking around the thorny issue and the other was not reading between the lines.

Rarely does a player sack a caddie without a replacement lined up to pick up the mantle. It is, after all, a player's market. Of course the Harrington camp had planned ahead. So as the caddie-shack turned its search engines towards the Harrington mobile number word seeped from the press tent that they were wasting their time. It was going to be a family replacement.

There is a clutch of caddies lurking in the country club car parks in America seeking employment and hissing fire at what they refer to as the useless relatives club. This is a group of players' relatives that are eating their way onto the tour as caddies for their professional relatives. The long-time caddies, now out of work , are not too keen on this group. The simple answer is that if they were any good, surely the players would employ them.

Either way the relatives are playing a more prominent role in the caddie shack as the purses continue to rise. It is a free world, the player is entitled to choose whoever he wants to pay.

Mark O'Meara was one of the first to start this family trend after he realised how much he had paid his caddie the year he won the British Open and the Masters. He reckoned that he had paid his porter more than the president of the US. So cost-cutting and keeping it in the family can have an influence on the decisions of top players to place relatives as their bagmen.

Now, looking at the Harrington camp in Europe, a trend is apparent. Wife's sister acts as nanny for their child. Boyfriend is left behind in Dublin. Why not get him in on the act and carry Padraig's bag. Then everyone would be happy, apart from Dave McNeilly who has been nudged aside in order to satisfy the cosy arrangement.

The other argument could be that the Harrington/McNeilly relationship had indeed gone stale. Which is how it goes in this business. Given the time that the two spent together it is a wonder that it didn't happen earlier. Padraig is the hardest working player on tour, by hours a day. Dave is independently industrious and by association was even more so with his tireless ex-boss.

There is no blame on either party for partnerships just running their course. Given the lack of legal constraint in player/caddie relationships, sackings are rife no matter how successful they have been and continue to be. Padraig is entitled to fire Dave without any reasons offered, no matter how surprised the rest of the tour may be. However, the confusion and lack of clarity on behalf of his discharged caddie does not show the respect that one would have expected from an exemplary player to his still wounded ex-caddie.

For the public to read about a dismissal before the party involved is something that the rest of the throng would do, not Padraig Harrington. Some clarity on this sad ending would be appreciated in the caddie shack.