Steve Williams

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I'm no Tiger Woods fan-boy, but I'm on his side in this.

Short version of story: Steve Williams was Tiger Woods' caddy for the past 12 years. Following the affair, Williams said that he has "lost respect" for Woods, and asked Woods while he was injured, to start being the caddy for Adam Scott. Tiger agreed, and then fired him.

At first I was sympathetic to Williams, but not after his display following Scott's win (in which he was the caddy) at Bridgestone this weekend. Williams described the win (and beating Tiger) as "the best week of his life". It just seemed kind of petty to me.

I mean, for 12 years Tiger Woods made more money in golf than anyone in the history of the sport. As his caddy who earns 10% of the golfer's winnings, Steve Williams was therefore the highest paid member of his profession for 12 years. Tiger hasn't been winning anything in the last 2 years, and now Williams is the caddy for a different golfer who IS winning. How exactly has Williams been wronged here?

You don't tell your boss that you lost respect for him, and you don't ask your boss to go work for one of your competitors. And it sounds really petty to publicly diss your boss after he fires you for the aforementioned stuff.

 

I concur. Caddie boy is a total d-bag. He was making more as a Cadie than many were making as a golfer! Shut the f*** up and live it up already. Tiger should borrow his ex's nine iron and crack caddie wussboy updside the skull.

 

I also had a problem with Williams saying "winning this tournament was the best week of life" because, well, he didn't win it. Adam Scott did. You carried the clubs and gave advice to the guy who won it. I'm not saying that having a good caddy isn't helpful in winning tournaments*, just that it's the golfer, not the caddy, that actually has to make the shots.

* Generally speaking, caddies on the PGA Tour are excellent golfers in their own right. Most of them are not quite good enough to be playing on the tour themselves - but they are this close. Most caddies tried to make the tour, found out they weren't quite good enough, and became caddies as a Plan B.

For a stretch of over a decade, Tiger was making millions of dollars each year playing golf. (His annual earnings each year were in the tens of millions ($50 million - $90 million), but the majority of that came from endorsement deals - his actual golf earnings averaged several million dollars per year.) Williams got 10% of that - so he was making several hundred thousand dollars per year. Tiger made him a millionaire. And you can't show a little class?

 

I don't know, guys -- if you lose respect for your boss, I don't think there's any problem with telling the guy how you feel*. In addition, he appears to have been straightforward in his approach (I don't want to work for you anymore, money be damned) and so went on to work for someone else.

I don't know what he said, but if it was merely

"How do you feel, Steve?"

"This has been the best week of my life!"

That doesn't really seem to me to be that much of a slam against Tiger. If he said more, along the lines of

"It is SO much better not working for Tiger!"

Then I can see calling the guy a douche, but I'm not seeing the disrespect for Tiger in a simple statement that he's enjoyed the week.

*The fact that this conversation should have been kept just between the two of them is not lost on me. But who knows how the details of that got out to the media. If it was Williams who blabbed to the media, then I agree that such talk is lacking in class.

 

Steve Williams is New Zealand's highest paid sportsperson!

 

He needs to shut his yap. It has already gotten to the point that Adam Scott had to talk to the media about Williams. He is taking away from Scott who played great and has made a non-story into an annoying story.

 

It was Williams who took the story to the media. In that interview he said that he felt like he had "wasted the last year and a half of my life" because due to injury and the divorce with his wife, Tiger hasn't played much golf in that time, and thus has made next to nothing, which means Williams wasn't making any money either.

Exactly. Other than Steve Williams, how many other caddies on the PGA Tour can you name? Chances are, none. Why? Because as a caddy you are supposed to carry to damn bag, tell your golfer distance to the hole and wind speed, and hand him the right club when he asks for it. It's not your job to be the story.