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Ernie Els splits with caddie

Ernie Els denied on Wednesday that his split with caddie and friend Ricci Roberts is either acrimonious or long-term.

A British newspaper spoke of Els and Roberts, who have been together for more than a decade barring a short break in 1999, parting company because of the South African's recent run of poor results.

Els, who has taken on Sam Torrance's veteran long-time bagman Malcolm Mason just for this week's WGC American Express Championship, explained the move via his management company.

Assistant manager Mark Bell said: "Ernie is particularly insistent on pointing out that the short split with Ricci, which may only be for a month, is borne out of friendship and nothing else.

"It's true that Ernie's looking to re-light his fire and he obviously wants to crank it up again as far as his results are concerned, but it's an amicable break."

Bell added that caddie Roberts will be back in place for the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City at the end of November.

September 28, 2006