Alejandro Tosti took off.
On his Instagram story late Thursday afternoon, the Argentine pro posted videos of what looked like him aboard a two-seat seaplane flying over the mountains near Asheville, N.C. — a quick joy ride between the first and second rounds of the PGA Tour’s Biltmore Championship Asheville. There was a post of him about to board. Another showed his plane to the side of a commercial plane nearing take-off. Others showed him in the air, and one showed that his plane touched down in a lake.
All of that, though, preceded another departure.
His caddie’s.
On Thursday, Tosti and his looper, Cliff Ellis, started the Biltmore Championship on hole 10 at the Cliffs at Walnut Cove, played the back nine, then things got weird. As first reported by Golfweek’s Adam Schupak and then shown Friday on Golf Channel, Ellis stopped carrying Tosti’s bag — on his ninth hole.
To that point, Tosti had parred his first eight holes, but, according to Schupak’s report, Tosti and Ellis had had a disagreement on Tuesday during a practice round, and it seemingly spilled over to Thursday. On Golf Channel, the two were seen going back and forth as they approached the 18th green, then Ellis dropped Tosti’s bag in the middle of the fairway, took off his caddie bib and walked away. In a text exchange, Tosti told Schupak that he thought Ellis on Thursday had gone to a restroom on the 18th hole. Schupak also reported that Tosti wrote: “He couldn’t keep up with eight pars in a row,” followed by laughing emojis.
In his eight years as a pro, Tosti has made a few headlines, including one with a caddie in March — at the Tour’s Valspar Championship, caddies wear personalized bibs, and this year, the bib of Tosti’s caddie read: “Need a wife.” In 2023, Tosti was also forced to withdraw from a Korn Ferry Tour event for what was called “a disciplinary measure.” In 2024, Tosti and Tony Finau were at odds over their playing order at the PGA Tour’s Houston Open.
On Thursday, Tosti shot a one-over 72 — and Golf Channel said he pulled a fan from the crowd to tote his bag for the back nine. As of this writing on Friday, Tosti was through seven holes in his second round and still at one over, four off the projected cutline. He also had new looper on his bag, Patrick Talledo.
Below is Golf Channel’s footage of what happened:
