IT’S ONE OF golf’s little idiosyncrasies, but player-caddy loyalty has never really counted for much.
Caddies are always prepared to be fired, not only because their job security is guaranteed by little more than a handshake, but because when a player’s game dips into a spell of mediocrity, they’re inevitably the first member of the entourage to drift into the firing line.
Even so, Woods’ decision to part company with long-time bagman Steve Williams, the man who’d been at his side for all but one of his major victories, came as something of a shock.
It had been coming – rumours were circulating for months – but no one, not least Williams himself, envisaged the end coming courtesy of the game’s most empty break-up platitude:
“It’s time for a change.”
Williams felt he deserved more and didn’t hold back during an interview with CNN:
“With the scandals, a new coach, a swing change, I’ve stuck with him through thick and thin and been incredibly loyal – and then this happens.“I, along with a lot of people, lost a lot of respect for Tiger [over his extra-marital affairs] and I pointed out before his return at the Masters at Augusta in 2010 that he had to earn back my respect.
“Through time I hope he can gain my respect back. He definitely needs to earn my respect again, that’s for sure.”
He may have felt comfortable severing ties with Williams, but it appears Tiger didn’t respect that age-old saying: beware the caddy scorned. In a separate radio interview with New Zealand News 3, the New Zealander floated the idea of writing a memoir of his time with Woods:
“I’ve always maintained that when I finish my caddying career, I would like to write a book. It’ll just be one of those interesting chapters in the book.”“I’m a big fan of autobiographies. You learn a lot from reading those sort of things and mine won’t be any different.”
Quite where all this is leading is anyone’s guess, but it’s already looking a lot less amicable than Tiger’s recent divorce.
