Last week, PGA Tour golfer Alejandro Tosti and his caddie, Cliff Ellis, attracted widespread attention after Ellis removed his bib and left Tosti’s bag midway through their round on the 18th fairway at the Cliffs at Walnut Cove, the site of the Biltmore Championship.
Footage from Golf Channel showed a brief, heated exchange between Tosti and Ellis just before the 18th green, after which Ellis departed. Tosti proceeded to the green, where he enlisted a gallery spectator to carry his bag for the remaining nine holes. He recorded a 72 in the first round and a 71 in the second, using a different caddie, and ultimately missed the cut.
Tosti told Golfweek’s Adam Schupak that he initially assumed Ellis had gone to the restroom on the 18th hole. The cause of their disagreement, Ellis explained, was detailed in an interview with The Tee Box Golf Show earlier this week.
Ellis, who had been Tosti’s caddie since the CJ Cup in May, described their working relationship as “tumultuous,” while noting that Tosti is “a very nice gentleman off the course” and “always courteous to fans.”
The pair managed to make only three cuts during their joint tenure before Ellis withdrew from the course last Thursday in North Carolina.
“The entire week was chaotic,” Ellis said. “Numerous off‑the‑wall incidents occurred between us. On Thursday morning we started well. While warming up on the range, we had a minor dispute over the bag’s positioning at the driving range, which was absurd. I tried to refocus us, saying, ‘Let’s stay on track.’ The day quickly turned for the worse.”
“I tried to brush it off,” Ellis added. “We use a hand signal to remind each other to stay focused, but he responded, ‘I don’t understand why you’d bring that up.’ He made a personal remark — something I can’t repeat on air. In the video you can see me pointing at myself, asking, ‘You’ll call me that over this?’”
“I told him to think again and we could move forward,” Ellis said. “He persisted, so I replied, ‘I’m done with you; I’m quitting.’ He asked, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I answered, ‘I’m serious. Who would subject themselves to this?’”
Ellis said he has not been in contact with Tosti since the incident, but remains open to caddying for another player in the future. Tosti currently sits at No. 188 in the FedEx Cup fall rankings.
You can listen to Ellis’s full interview on The Tee Box Golf Show; the segment starts at the 37‑minute mark.
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