Tributes paid to caddie Musgrove

The golfing world has paid tribute to caddie Dave Musgrove, who won Major Championships with Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle and Lee Janzen during a stellar career.

The Englishman, who alongside Dave Renwick is the only British caddie to work for three separate Major Champions, spent nine years on the bag of Scotsman Lyle and four with 50-time European Tour winner Ballesteros.

Having begun caddying as a 12 year old carrying for members at Hollinwell in Nottinghamshire, Musgrove’s first Major experience came at Troon in 1962 with local professional David Talbot.

His breakthrough came 17 years later, when he guided a young Ballesteros to his first Open Championship triumph at Royal Lytham in 1979.

Musgrove went on to form a formidable partnership with Lyle. The pair lifted the Claret Jug at Royal St George’s in 1985, before famously going on to claim the Green Jacket at the 1988 Masters Tournament.

Following 11 years apart from Lyle, where Musgrove added a US Open win to his trophy cabinet with America’s Janzen in 1998, the two renewed their partnership in 2001, with the man known as ‘Muzzy’ making his 40^thconsecutive Open appearance.

Paying tribute to his close friend, Lyle wrote on Twitter: “Muzzy RIP. We wrote history together at The Open, The Masters and The Players Championship. We’ll miss your humour and your stories #gentleman.”

Other players took to Twitter to express their condolences:

Caddies paid their respects to their colleague, Justin Rose's caddie Mark Fulcher with this message:

While Martin Kaymer’s caddie Craig Connelly called him a ‘true gentleman’: