• US Open, Round Three

McIlroy's caddie must provide a safety net

Rory McIlroy will need the wise head of his caddie to see him through another major Sunday © Getty Images

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We've been here before.

Rory McIlroy will go into the final round of another major with a significant advantage. This time it is the US Open, and this time it is an eight-shot lead he holds.

We all know what happened last time the man from Northern Ireland was in such an imposing position. The story does not need repeating - not now, and not over the final 18 holes at Congressional Country Club.

Avoiding such a scenario will be down to McIlroy, first and foremost. But there is someone else who can help him if he looks like faltering.

His caddie.

Back in April, everything unravelled for McIlroy at Augusta on the 10th. His tee shot that found a tree and cannoned back into a patron's front yard may stick in the memory, but it was the shot after next that really did the damage.

Having chipped back into the fairway from the back of beyond, McIlroy attempted to reach the green by hitting a fairway wood from the fairway. The result, unsurprisingly, was another big hook which would pave the way for the triple-bogey that marked the beginning of the end for his ability to compete.

McIlroy never should have hit that fairway wood, and his caddie never should have let him. That's why there will be a lot of pressure on JP Fitzgerald when the 22-year-old looks to close out matters on Sunday.

Like the player himself, Fitzgerald will have to employ a delicate balancing act. Just as his player cannot afford to get too aggressive or too defensive, his caddie cannot try and interfere more or less with shot selection and club choice as he would in any other round.

Restraint, on both parts, needs to be shown. McIlroy's aim - as it seems to have been all week - should be simply to find the centre of all 18 fairways and then the centre of all 18 greens.

If he falters from that plan at any point, then the simplest and safest recovery should be the one chosen. That's where Fitzgerald should be strong.

Please, no more third shot fairway woods.

It's only natural to worry how many more disappointments a young player can take. It takes just one look at Sergio Garcia's demeanour to become acutely aware of how major misses can begin to weigh heavily on the shoulders.

The Spaniard - not blessed with quite the same rhythmic swing as McIlroy, although arguably a more inventive short game - is clearly still quite a player, but derives no enjoyment from the process. Memories of near misses in these events - from Valhalla in 1999 to Oakland Hills nine years later and everything in between - have turned the five-year-old who used to challenge senior members at his boyhood club to putting competitions for cans of Coke into a saddened-beyond-his-years 31-year-old.

He could still win a major - he's clearly still got the talent for it. It just remains to be seen whether he can rediscover the right mental attitude.

For now, the last thing anyone wants to see is for McIlroy to tread a similar path.

The trauma of Sunday's Masters meltdown has made all of McIlroy's fans (of which there are many more, in light of the way he handled the issue) a little gun-shy - reassuring each other with every passing hole without a big number.

This Sunday, we will see whether the man himself has been affected. Hopefully, as his comments have always suggested, he is not.

But if he is, fortunately he has enough of a lead to have the chance to gather himself and recover without another damaging defeat to ponder.

That's where his caddie will come in. His isn't the most important role on Sunday, but it might just be the second. And if he does it well his charge should become a major champion.

So it's not just about what McIlroy has learned from that final round at The Masters. It's about what his caddie has learned, too.

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