Why giving Tiger Woods the wrong yardage was a risk worth taking for Steve Williams

Why giving Tiger Woods the wrong yardage was a risk worth taking for Steve Williams

[Music] All right, here we go. Welcome back to Golf Subpar with Colt Nost and Drew Stolton. As always, Subpar is brought to you by Fanatic Sportsbook. And great golf’s coming, including some huge majors. And Fanatic Sportsbook has even more ways to get in on the action. The latest update, you can now parlay multiple players. Combine picks like the outright winner with top five, 10, or 20 finishes, poll scores, and even who makes the cut. Plus, me and Drew are dropping our weekly subpar picks right in the Fanatic Sportsbook app, so you can ride with us every week. And if you’re new, here’s a bonus. Sign up and bet $20 and you’ll get $200 in bonus bets. Just use the code subpar when you join. So much great golf ahead and so many ways to bet. All in the Fanatic Sportsbook app. Not available in all states. Terms apply. See Fanatic Sportsbook app. Gambling problem, call 1800 gambler. Connecticut 888789777. [Music] Massachusetts, call 1800 327-50. New York 8778 hopey. Maryland mdgamblinghelp.org. All right, let’s get this thing rolling right here. We got a man that went on the PGA tour that’s not even old enough to gamble.
20-year-old Aldrich poter is your winner of the Rocket Classic threeman playoff. Him, Chris Kirk, Max Gasman went five holes. Never thought I was going to get out of Detroit, but in the end, Aldrick Pocketer with about a 20ft birdie putt on the fifth extra hole to get it done. This guy absolutely smashes. I feel like we talked a lot about him earlier this year when we were out in San Diego at Tory Pines.
Um, I mean, this is the future, dude. 195 ball speed, just absolutely hits bombs and he can roll the rock.
And by the way, Max Grayman was like right next to him the whole time. I mean, they were hitting I know it’s hot, it’s firm up there. Ball was bouncing, but they were just hitting some weird yardages out there. They weren’t the only ones either. There was a bunch of people. But P Gman, I think he’s got the best game on tour. When he plays good, he either wins, contends, finishes high, and when he doesn’t, he goes home on the weekend.
You like that? It’s the best way to be in the world. He’s had he’s played 15 events on tour this year, 10 missed cuts, and the five that he’s made, he’s got a win, and is he’s only finished outside the top 15 one time. I think some of that’s like youth, you know? He’s a rookie dude. 20 years old, youngest kid on the PGA Tour, loaded with game, but I think there’s just some like figuring out going on out there. Um, when he drives it good, he gonna be tough to beat. The short game is really the only kind of glaring thing. I think he’s 156th if I’m not mistaken and scrambling. Everything else solid.
His putty is fine. I mean, he’s a really good putter. He hits bombs. Like I said, he should have two wins on the air. I mean, Brian Gamble’s ball in Mexico was out of bounds and a damn monkey threw it back in and he goes on to win or else he would be looking at a multiple win season right now. But this is a guy that just took a month off, went back to South Africa, finished tied for sixth at Colonial, was a little sounded like burnout a little bit, a little homesick. I mean, it’s a big deal going from living in South Africa at 18, 19 years old. I mean, your whole life, but then coming over here, it gets very lonely for him. Obviously doesn’t have a ton of friends over here. His dad travels with him a lot, but took a little month off to reset. Went up to London on his way back to the United States. Got all new clubs, switched golf balls, everything. Got dialed in. He’s actually using a 44 in driver, which is an inch to an inch and a half shorter than pretty much every other guy’s driver out there. And he still has 193 to 196 mph ball speed. That’s what’s terrifying. I mean, 45 in driver, he’s going to have 200 mph ball speed, no problem.
Yeah. I mean,
but he doesn’t need it. He’s trying to like tone it back and he’s at 196 in the playoff. I saw I read a quote from his coach and he’s like, “Man, I’d really like to get him like cruising just around like 185 to 90.” How many teachers do you hear say that? I wish my guy was slower. I wish my guy was slower. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, it was a hell of a good tournament, man. I know like the field, you look at it, it’s not the superstars that jump off. That’s just the world we’re going to live in now with signature events and non-signature events. However, you are getting some more names than I think you do in years past now because like you’ll see this week of the John Deere, like there’s some names that don’t play that thing typically, but now need to got to get inside the top 100. Like it’s all it’s all shrinking and you’re seeing more and more names up there, but man, I think for a 20-year-old kid what he’s done, like you mentioned, damn I mean fractions one of the weirdest bounces of all time away from being a two-time winner as the youngest guy on the PJ tour.
Uh Jeff Oggov got to be happy seeing this. There’s another President’s Cup for you. the young gun coming up and like I I don’t know how good he can be yet. He might never win again. He might win a bunch of stuff, but he’s all he’s done since he started playing golf is he’s the youngest winner on the Cornferry tour, second youngest graduate ever off that tour. Now he’s the winner as the youngest guy on the PJ tour. Like he hadn’t slowed down at all. He’s done it at every level.
I mean, he’s got something that you really can’t teach and that’s just elite speed. I mean, you’re just blessed with that.
Yeah, we got it.
Exactly.
Luckily,
but he’s the longest guy on the PGA Tour. He could be even longer. He’s 20. I mean, if he gets in the gym, gets a lot stronger as well. Look out. Like, I’m with you. I I don’t know what to expect from him. Um, getting used to these golf courses over here on the PGA Tour. I’m sure he’ll be better next year. But, to miss as many cuts as he did is just is wild. But, uh, he’s fun to watch, man. I I love watching. He drove it so good last week. Just when you have that kind of speed, you can hit the random foul ball and he just didn’t do it last week and was able to pick up his win. We hadn’t, you mentioned the tournament was pretty exciting. At one point on Saturday on the back nine, there was 32 guys within two shots of the lead. Yeah. Like that just doesn’t happen.
I know. And at that point, like, no offense to Poger, but I was like, there was a handful of names. I was like, watch him. He’s going to do it. Watch this guy. He’s going to do it. And we ended up with, you know, Chris Kirk is the the old vet, by the way, 40 now against a 30-year-old and a 20-year-old. Feeling ancient. Um, what’s he got? Six. Was that for his six? He’s got six.
He’s got six wins.
It would have been for seven. like sneaky just big career out there. I thought he had it on the first playoff.
So, we actually were on the same plane going from there to Zack Johnson’s charity event, Cedar Rapids, and we were talking and just about how much the games changed and all this. I totally forgot Chris Kirk finished second in the FedEx Cup several years ago. Should have won the year Billy Horchel won. Chris had was the number one seed going into East Lake. Finished fourth for the week and Billy Horchel overtook him to win the FedEx Cup. I was like, “Damn, I almost forgot Chris Kirk won the FedEx Cup.”
He’s been around a long time. He’s one of the Georgia gets a bunch of like He’s been good for forever. He was really good in college. Came out, been really good ever since then. He’s 40 now. Still good. Yeah, he’s uh
six wins, almost seven.
I thought he was going to end it right out of the gate there. Nine footer down the hill to win. I thought he was going to get it done. But it was an awesome week in Detroit. They’re ripping that golf course up as we speak. So, we’re going to expect a much different Detroit golf club um next year. Did not see Eminem at any point while I was there. It’s kind of sad.
You go to mom’s spaghetti. Yeah, saw it. Didn’t go, but I saw you saw it. Try by our hotel.
Uhhuh.
But um yeah, fun week there, man. Became a man in Detroit.
That’s right, dude. This first time in person since you became a man. 40 years old. Congratulations. Officially a man. Just two men talking shop here. It’s nice.
Congratulations. Did you get blasted?
Uh yeah, of course. New York City, straight into that. We, you know, did an interview from New York City last week. I think almost died because of heat exhaustion, um dehydration. It was a It was It was a hell of a way to turn 40.
That’s a hell of a way to turn 40. And you got to follow it up at Zach Johnson’s deal. You got to meet one of the exciting whites. How about that?
Did I?
A little endangered species.
This one was tough for me. S um we were up there. Zach always has a bunch of tour players come out, LPJ guys, and then you get some just random celebs. Most of them have ties to Iowa.
Like Caitlyn was there last year, right?
Caitlyn was there a couple years.
She’s the ninth best player in the WNBA according to the players. Yeah. I believe might have been ninth best guard as well as I continue to read up on that.
Yeah, there’s a lot of great players up there.
So, I was looking at the list and
spot him from across the room over at the bar. The Super Bowl champion. Philadelphia Eagle Cooper Deene. There he was. I just was like, “God, I hate you. You’re an Eagle. You’re a champion.” He had a pick six in the Super Bowl.
He’s the sickest.
Then I found out he loves golf and he’s the nicest human on the planet. Now I actually like the guy.
Yep. You’re going to get a jersey now.
No, I’m not getting a jersey. I’ll get an Iowa Cooper Dean jersey. Man, what a dude. What a dude. His high his high school basketball clips.
You seen those?
Yeah. Everything. I mean, that’s a joke. Probably did whatever. He’s probably good at golf. Did you see him swing it?
Yeah, he swings it very hard, shockingly.
Okay. Didn’t really know where it’s going. I saw him only hit a couple, but um yeah, he he’s got some serious speed as you expect a elite athlete to have. But awesome dude, man. Really, I will say this and this is give him a little [ __ ] right here. I will just because he’s an eagle and I can do this. I I told him Sunday night, I said, “Hey, I’m calling you out onto the tea for the clinic. We’re going to we’re going to talk a little football. Like, all right, deal. Well, he didn’t quite show up on time. Mhm.
Showed up right as we were getting the tournament underway. I was like, Sirani would not be having this. You show up late, you’re running some sprints or something.
You have a pick six in the Super Bowl. Show up when you want.
Okay, fine. Whatever. Well, I was very disappointed I didn’t get to give him some [ __ ] during um the
We need to get him on the show. We might have to get Riley Moss in the house, too. Just do ultimate endangered species.
You’d have the biggest chub of all time. That’d be a big one for me, not going to lie. In multiple ways. Throw in Jason Williams and oh my god,
forget it. Don’t even talk like that. Is Derk available? Call his ass into the mix as well.
But no, it’s great event. Got to give love to Zach and his foundation. They just doing an unbelievable job. Max player, Ricky Fowler, Jake Knap, um Sig Freed was there, Grayson Sig as likes to call. I was going to say, where was Roy?
Yeah. But u uh Alzahara Munoz was there. Megan Kang who I’ve always heard has an incredible personality is hilarious. Uh yes, she is. She is fantastic. We need to get her on the show as well. Every hole I saw her on, she was dancing and playing the air guitar with her driver. I was like, “This girl’s got energy. I like this.”
Respect.
But
respect. Good squad up there.
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We need to try it.
We just need Yeah, we just order 100. I was going to say we need 98 friends, but screw that. Let’s get out here in the parking lot and let’s see what happens.
Yeah, let’s try to talk to some aliens.
All right. Um, one other thing we should get to, I thought that a lot of people took notice of this past week. Uh, Roger Maltby and Podrick Harrington getting in a little argument at the US Senior Open. Podrick was not too happy when Raj didn’t help him look for his golf ball on the 15th hole when he hit it into the [ __ ] Um, obviously Roger came out and defended himself. Like, look, my boss told me to be ready to kind of explain the situation down there. I couldn’t be down there in the weeds looking for your ball and do that at the same time. That’s my boss. But, um, it was interesting cuz Padrick obviously one of the most respected guys there is. We love him here. Same thing with Roger. One of the most respected guys to ever roam the fairways out there for TV. Um, everybody loves Raj. That one was a little surprising though. It also sucks too that that was supposed to be like a private moment and someone filmed it and then put it out there.
Yeah. I mean, I don’t think you can expect it to be private anymore if you’re doing it wide open. There’s people sitting there waiting for autographs from Podrick. It’s like they decided to hash it out there. I found that weird. But this those two guys was surprising. It’s like those are two first ballot hall of famers, you know what I mean? For what they do, respectively. And um I get Podrick’s point like dude help me look for my ball. We’re trying to find it. But also like that ain’t his job. You know what I mean? Roger doesn’t hand him the pack walking down the fair bit. Why don’t you call some shots for your boys here? It’s like I’m doing a job. My boss is telling me what to do. If I could help you look for your ball, I probably would. Um but also I’ve been around the game a long time and I think he knows the proper protocols there. It wasn’t like that heated, you know what I mean? It was like it was pretty respectful. It could have gotten a lot worse. And Padrick Harington ended up, I guess, apologizing after the fact, which and Roger accepted it. And then he went on to win a golf tournament, so no one cares anymore. But at that moment, it was just weird to see those two guys cuz like
I think each of them were held in pretty high regard by everybody. But it was fine.
Hey, look, I get it. And and I’ve heard both sides of this. Like me, I’ve always been a guy that I’m going to go down there and help if I can. Mostly like I’m 80 to 100 yards ahead of the T- box. Like I have a better idea of where the ball went in than they do. And also I’m going to get there before them which also help the clock doesn’t start until they get there. So I can help them try to find it. Um you know I spoke to Die Pepper about this. She’s always been told you’re not part you do not become part of the story. Like you’re there to report the news not be the news. So I get that side as well. It’s not our job to go down there and look for their golf ball. But as someone around the the situation like I’m happy to go in there and try to help find the guys and maybe if you find it someone gives you a little kickback, you know, if it helps them out a little bit.
Yeah. if they’re talking to you in the headset or that you’re like, “Hey, we’re about to go live with a report and all this stuff.” You can’t be like trompling around in the weeds. By the way, what that was a dense place to hit it into. Even if they found it, I was like, “What are you doing? You’re not hitting it out. Two clubs probably doesn’t get you back in play either.” So, uh, moot point. He ends up winning the thing. Uh, but everyone loves each other.
We move on. Except for Brooks Keepa doesn’t like the T- markers on the ninth at Merido. There’s a lot of golfers that don’t like a lot of [ __ ] right now. Dude, are we not in like an angry face right now? I mean, you can go down the list. Windhams had some boo boos. Brooks had a one that I mean tough to see on the camera angle, but I was like that could have gone straight in. There was there was people there that could have been bad. Um Justin Thomas had like the little weird club flip. It wasn’t like a throw, but that almost took somebody out. Who else am I missing? Uh Steven Joerger had a a freak out vicious
this week. I mean, guys are just losing their brains. Is it just we’re just late in the season and everyone hates golf and frustrating as hell?
Daryl Hatton, I mean, he hasn’t changed. Doesn’t matter if it’s January, June, or July, he’s the same. He obviously thinks there’s a lot better holes on the planet than the one of the par fives there at Merido.
That’s strange cuz he likes a lot of light lot of golf course.
That was funny though. The Brooks thing was scary to me like just like T. He’s not like T doesn’t like break [ __ ] and throw things. He just talks.
He just says things. Although he did do the the gun, the putter gun turned his putter into a gun, which is probably like I just feel like we’re in an era right now. We’re in a phase right now where there’s a lot of pissed-off golfers. Some of it is funny. Some of it I laugh at, but the ones where like clubs almost hit spectators or things, that’s going to be like that’s going to be a big problem and when that happens.
A metal T- marker that a man swung a driver and he took off flying and
Rory smashed one at the US Open. Forgot about that. What? He didn’t hit it at anyone, but like people were freaking out.
I’m not defending Rory on that, but that one just like that was just kind of bam. I mean, and it just happened to be a cheap ass plastic tea marker.
Yeah, that’s still Still shouldn’t do it though.
Bush, you can’t break Yeah. Brooks went on to withdraw because of illness and then came back on Sunday to play for the team.
Yeah. Back one day illness. I get those all the time. They’re called the hangover. Bogey flu is dirty back
for their long. Now that you’re a man, you’ll see they last a little longer. Do they?
Yeah. It’s like three I I’m literally just getting over one from JJ’s uh US Open celebration party.
Yeah. Did you drive down from Wisconsin to come to that that party? We’re get to that in the interview.
Down from Wisconsin.
Yeah. I mean, didn’t you drive like 3 hours to come to this party?
No. Weren’t you up at Flagstaff? No, I was already home.
Oh, okay. How was it?
Come on. What are you trying to do? Trying to make me look bad? I was there. Yeah, we smashed out of that thing. I saw a lot of different liquors that night. Uh start off with beer, then it turned into a nice bottle of wine. Later on, tequila, and then we took it over to the Rooster.
Great spot.
Great spot. Uh suffice it to say, the Rooster has not seen many major championship trophies in that thing. It was beautiful. That’s not a big golf crowd, you would think. Oh, Contrer. No, apparently they’re all golfers in there. They love JJ.
Whatever transmissible diseases that you can get from sharing a cup with somebody’s in there. I got it. And that thing was passed around uh in a good way. But man, it was a hell of a good time. But yeah, the hangovers.
Who who took care of the tab?
Uh JJ mandated that he took care of dinner, which was substantial. And then I took care of the the rooster.
Okay.
Yeah. So, better than Windom, who sticks us with the whole bill.
Oh, yeah. He ain’t going to chip in a dollar.
Yeah, we’re just trashing him. He’s still my son and I love him. We got JJ coming on next week. He’s going to have the US Open trophy here live and in the studio. So, can’t wait to catch up with him. See if he’s recovered from just a life-changing, career-changing week.
I was asking him. I was like, “Hey, do you want anything in the studio? Like something to drink for?” He’s like, “No, dude. I’m done. I’m done for a while.” I think that’s actually good news.
Water. Water’s good. Some electrolytes.
Got to get ready to go. Playoffs are coming up. British Open’s coming up, too.
That’s right. Chance to go back to back. All right, let’s get to our picks before we get to our special guest this week. Head on over to Fanatics, download the Fanatic Sportsbook app so you can follow along. Um, we’re going to try to turn this thing around. It’s been a little cold right now, but you’re still in the positive for the year. I am not, but um, hey, mama didn’t raise no quitter. I’m going to keep on firing.
No, dude. You got to shoot till you shoot your way out of it. You’re either hot or you’re due. And right now, we’re due.
All right. Well, we’re on to the John Deere Classic, home of Duck City, by the way. Some call it the Midwest Masters, whatever you want to call it, but he’s got a pretty good field. Max Homer, Ricky Fowler, Ben Griffin’s playing again. Take a week off, Ben. I mean, you’ve made nine gazillion dollars.
He likes collecting money.
That’s fair. Um, but
this is a fun week, man.
Is he the most like underrated? Like, did we sleep on him the most? I did not see this coming from Ben Griffin. And now it’s week after week after week. It’s not like one big one and he catapults up. He plays good every time.
He’s the betting favorite this week at the John Deere Classic. I never would have thought that, but this guy probably got a very good chance of being on the RDER Cup team with Keegan Bradley as a captain or as a player or as both. We’ll have to sit back and wait and see. But I’m going to get on the board this week. Okay, I’m taking a top 20 at plus 140. I actually think this guy’s going to win the golf tournament. He loves this place. You got to make a ton of birdies. You got to roll the rocket. No one rolls it better than Denny McCarthy. The time is now. Top 20 at plus 140. But I’m just making it well known that I do like him to win the golf tournament. going to win, but I’m only going to I’d rather only win plus 140. What is he to win the golf tournament?
Um I can tell you right now sports book.
Maybe fire on both as a little hedge. I’ll go ahead with mine while you’re looking at that. I’m also going top 20. Got to get off the Schneider. Haven’t had a winner since JJ Spawn at the US Open. I’m getting plus 175 on this man. Colt had every chance. He had a really good chance to win last week. Ended up finishing fourth. He had a month off after a WD at Colonial. I feel like he’s coming back fresh. He looked really good off the tea and on the greens last week. He can make a ton of birdies. It’s like he’s just kind of coming into his own. Michael Thorbjornson.
Yeah.
Stand up.
One time young stud. Got JJ Jackovic on the back. Played really well last week.
Again, he’s played well here before. What’ you say? Fourth last year.
Uh fourth last week.
Yeah.
At the Rocket. I mean, it was right there. He had a chance.
He’s He’s the real deal, man. Smashes it. Good young player. Um I like that pick a lot. And by the way, Danny McCarthy is plus 2500 to win this week. also bet that there win them both. A win is also in the top 20.
All right, make sure you go download the Fanatic Sportsbook app and follow along with us. All right, our guest this week. One of the best to ever do it. He’s a pro looper. Likes to drive cars really fast and uh cattied for my opinion the greatest player that’s ever played the game. Had a front row ticket for 14 was it? He has 14 majors total. 13 with Tiger Woods.
13 with Tiger, one with Adam Scott.
All right, we got Steve Williams joining us on Golf Subpar. All right, we are very excited to welcome on our guest this week, one of the most accomplished caddies of all time. He’s got 14 major championships on his resume, 13 coming during his time with Tiger Woods, and he recently released a book with Evan Priest entitled Together We Roar. Shares some awesome stories that is crack if you’re a golf fan out there. The great Steve Williams joins us. Steve, thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks so much for having me on the show. Um, it’s obviously a very popular show with people down here in New Zealand know a lot about your show. So, yeah, thanks for having us on.
Yes, sir.
I love that. We’re big with the Kiwis.
Yes.
I love it. But Steve, I haven’t seen you in a while. I just I want to ask like what made you want to write this book here? Obviously, it’s so interesting and exciting to read.
Yeah, it was um purely Evans idea during co um obviously he’s a reporter media guy and there wasn’t a lot happening during co so he had this idea of doing a podcast. It was called Chasing Majors and it was about all my major victories, one episode per major victory and just sort of talk it in depth and then Evan got a bit of interest from some publicists about you know perhaps expanding on that podcast into a form of a book and it took two or three years to sort of get all the pieces of the jigsaw in place and that’s how it came about. So um yeah, it was mainly Evan, not myself. Well, on behalf of all the golf fans across the world, we thank you for doing that because there’s some cool stories in here. I don’t I think no golf fan can get enough Tiger stories and there’s some that I’d never heard before. One specifically that I thought we could start with just because it’s early on is the story when you got the phone call from Tiger to Caddy for him. That was this is awesome. Can you tell that story?
Yeah, look it was a bit of a laugh. I arrived in Miami for my first of the year which was at Derell. Um I was cing for Ray Floyd at the time and he hadn’t played any of the West Coast swing. Uh I was not uh aware that Tiger and Mike Cowan had parted ways and there’s a bit of chat around the putting green on Tuesday on the driving range um about that news. I didn’t really give it much thought and Tuesday night in my hotel room um this is just after arriving from New Zealand jetlagging that the phone rang in my hotel room. I have a guy a very good friend of mine who’s a golf pro and he can imitate Tiger to a tea. his swing, his body language, his movement, his voice, and uh I just thought it was him and in no uncertain terms. It was fairly late in the evening. I just told him to f off and give me a ring tomorrow. Uh a couple of minutes later, the phone rang and it was the same question and I gave pretty much the same reply. Then the third time I thought, well, maybe it’s not my mate Bob. And sure enough, it wasn’t. It was Tiger. That was a uh a very good start uh about you know sort of the the a bit about the the banter that that Kiwis have and Aussies have that sort of our way of thinking is a little bit different I guess to what they you know what Tiger would be used to. So we got off to a good start there.
Did you did you have any kind of relationship with him before the phone call?
Yeah. So um Tiger a couple of years as an amateur had played with Raymond at Augusta. Raymond uh was well known that he was very welcoming to take guys, amateurs or pros that had not played at August before and wanted to play somebody who would take the time to play a practice round and sort of show them around the course and really give them a lot of information. You know, it’s a course as you know, Colt, you can’t get enough information about where to miss it, where not to miss it, which holes to play aggressive on, which ones to not play on, and all that. There’s a lot of uh unlike a lot of golf courses, I feel there’s more local knowledge there than a lot of other courses. of and Ray was very welcoming and Tiger played a couple of practice rounds with him two years when he was an amateur and he soaked up so much information. So that was my introduction to Tiger. Got to meet him there and you know of course playing a practice round with him there’s no doubt in my mind um as a caddy we look at players and we’ll say this guy’s got the X factor and a guy that’s got the X factor will most likely go on to be a very very successful career and straight away I said to myself you know this guy’s got the X factor. So that was my introduction to Tiger who’s a lovely guy to play with in a practice round. Yeah. Before we get back to our interview with Steve Williams, a quick note from Golf Pride. If you care about feel, consistency, and control, start with your grips. Golf Pride’s new Align Max has a raised ridge that fits your hand’s natural shape, guiding you into the same grip every time. That means a more repeatable swing shot after shot. And when it comes to your putter, the reverse taper grip is a gamecher. The slightly larger lower hand keeps both hands quiet and the face square at impact. It’s available in three shapes and even small sizes now. now. So, there’s one for every putting style. Right now, get 20% off a full set, up to 13 swing grips, and one putter grip at golfpride.com with code subpar 20 now through August 31st. And now back to Steve Williams. I would love to hear like how you even got into catting because I’ll be honest, I don’t think a lot of people, you know, as their kids grow up, they’re like, “Hey, I really want to be a professional caddy one day.” But obviously now the business has changed a ton. But what was your first experience catting? Yeah, look, uh, my father was a very good amateur player here in New Zealand and we used to have a tournament at my golf course. It was called Pa Parumu Beach, which is the only uh, golf course up until recently that was in the top 100 in the world. And they hosted a tournament every year. It was called the Celtex Invitational. And my father played it as an amateur. Um, and he got to meet Peter Thompson um, through his through that tournament. And one year he just said to Peter, “Hey, my my son um is loves to caddy. I caddy at our golf course every weekend uh and said my son loves to caddy. He would love to caddy for you um one time when you come to New Zealand. So he arranged that and I caddy from him. It was 1976 and um I decided right there and then uh I was 13 years of age and I decided well actually 12 at the time of the tournament. It was a week away my 13th birthday whatever. And um I decided right there and then that’s what I wanted to do. Um in a nutshell um as a youngster growing up I worked in a butcher shop. I had a paper round. Um, I used to pick mushrooms and sell those on the side of the road. I was always looking to ways to make money along with catting. Um, you know, and I used to make a pretty healthy amount of about $5 a week, which was a lot of money back then. And then I c for this guy. He gave me $150. Well, I’d never seen that much money. And straight away, I said to myself, I want to be a caddy. And the following week, I c for Peter at a a tournament in Oakland. It was called the Air New Zealand Shell Open. And he was paired with Graeme Marsh. And Graeme had a caddy by the name of Nick Depaul who you would know who that is. A guy that later went on to caddy for Srianiano Bellis and had a very very successful caddy as a career as a caddy and Nick was good enough to tell me the ins and outs how you become a professional caddy what it involves and you know that was my start and that’s how it got underway. Well, hell of a good decision you made led to a very very nice career. Go back to when Tiger split with fluff. I mean, at that point, I got to think he could have handpicked any Caddy in the world and they would have crawled over hot fire to Caddy for Tiger Woods and he picked you. Why do you think What do you think he saw in you that made him think I want Steve Williams?
Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, you know, I I guess, you know, I’ve always had a reputation as a standup sort of a guy. Not not scared to voice my opinion and not scared to, you know, back um to back myself if you like. Um and and Tiger asked a few people. Marra, his good mate, Butch Harmon, his coach at the time and a couple other people. Uh, you know, obviously each person he asked the Tiger asked, they had a few different caddies, but that their names and my name was synonymous with all people that he asked and that that’s how it came about.
Would you say like because being out there obviously there’s guys that are easy to caddyy for and there’s guys that are tough to caddyy for. Obviously, he’s one of the best we’ve ever seen, but as far as catting for the guy, is like, is Tiger a guy that requires a lot of information or is he keep it pretty simple out there?
Um, I I think one of the key things ingredients that made him so su successful is how simple he kept it the whole time. You know, he wasn’t one of these guys that was constantly on track, man. Um, you know, when we used when when we did our yardages that, we weren’t using the up and down uh numbers that were in the yardage book. we just go it’s a little uphill, it’s a little downhill, it’s cold today, it’s warm today that, you know, he he kept things very simple. And when I look back uh at it, I I think that was one of his major attributes that made it, you know, he played pretty quickly as well and he, you know, he made his decision and pulled the trigger and played the shot. So, I think that was one of his, you know, attributes that made him successful.
You know, that blew me away. He recently said that I believe last year when he was playing, but the the not calculating the up and downs, which just that just shocked me that a guy like Tiger Woods want wouldn’t want to know exactly what it was playing up the hill or down the hill.
Yeah. Look, Colt, I mean, it’s interesting that I mean, I I had a brief stint cing for Jason Day, and nothing against Jason, you know, I would call Jason a modern-day player and I would call Tiger an old, you know, an olden day player. And when I was counting for Jason, you know, trying to calculate, he was using the up and down. He had information about how far the ball went in 70°, 80°, 90°, 100 degree weather, and all these different things became overwhelming. Um, and you know, it it’s interesting when you use that up and down. You know, sometimes, like for instance, at the sixth hole, Augusta, as you know, guys, it’s very much downhill. And sometimes, you know, I’d be, you know, we we’d never use the up and down. Sometimes if you got to the hole there and there was a considerable weight uh on the te you know I’d look at that number and think to myself what am I thinking and what is that number indicating it was too great a difference you know so we just never used that thing you know Tiger was a field player um and and I think that’s why he was so successful playing on Lynx golf courses golf courses that were target golf courses uh Parkland golf courses you know your Beth Paige type courses Um I think he played strictly by feel. Um and you like I said, you know, he didn’t use all those numbers that were required. And I think today part of the problem is is that the information that’s available now has contributed to the slow play on tour. You know,
boy,
that’s you know, I think there’s just too much information now. Whether that’s a good thing or bad thing or it’s an individual choice. Yeah. between the information and the technology. I feel like some of these guys like paralyzed themselves, strip themselves of their talent, just worrying too much about that stuff. But you you mentioned a couple of the names, Steve, that you cattied for. Raymond Floyd, you also had Greg Norman, Adam Scott, just to name a few. Looking back, Baker Finch, don’t forget
IBF in the house. Shout out IBF. No question about it. Uh what are the biggest differences in the job responsibilities catting for Tiger versus some of these other bigname players that you were with? Oh, look, I mean really, you know, the job responsibility is exactly the same here where they you’re caring for, you know, you’ve got to do what what they want you to do as a caddy, you know, and when you go to to work with somebody, that’s the first thing, well, in my book, that’s the first thing you do is ask them what do they require for caddy. What is it that you want? What is it you require? What is it you don’t want? What you don’t like? Um, so pretty much it’s the same for every guy. Obviously, when you’re catting for Tiger, um, the the biggest difference between cing for Tiger and say Adam Scott was just trying to keep the distractions to a minimal. You know, like I always looked at it, you know, Tiger, you know, obviously was phenomenal player and had created a lot of interest wherever he went, but I wanted him to be on a level playing field as the other guys so that when he was on the range, he wasn’t distracted. When he was on the ping green, he wasn’t distracted because, you know, every tournament he went to, for instance, you know, there was always these guys that are the tournament directors that are always trying to entice players to come to their tournament. Hey, Tiger, have you looked at, you know, our tournament? Where does it fit in your schedule? This, that, and the other. you know, we can offer you a fishing trip here or, you know, keep those guys at bay. Just try to give him uh the same opportunity that someone else that’s not in his position when they come to the range to practice or when they go to the putting green arena to practice that he gets the same opportunity to not be disturbed because he always considered the golf course and the practice. That’s my office. That’s my workplace and I I’m here to do my job and I would help him um succeed in that. And I know you talk a lot about it in the book Together Wear, but just his dedication, his practice regimen. There was a story in there after he won a major championship, people were talking about, you know, throwing a party and he’s like, “No, he was on the range the next morning at 8 a.m. Can you just talk about like how dedicated this guy was?”
Yeah. I mean, look, Colt, you know, these a lot of guys are dedicated. We know that to be successful as a professional golfer to get to the top of the tree, you’ve got to be dedicated. But it’s the way about you go your business. And I always used to sort of well not laugh but I took a lot of interest when we was quite often we’d be at Iowa and there’d be Stuart Applebeby Charles How Mark and Tiger. Four of them could be on the range at one time practicing a bit of banter helping each other out and Charles would hit three balls to every ball that Tiger hit, you know. So Tiger might have hit 200, Charles is at 600, but but Tiger hit 200 every shot that he hit in practiced. He’d always hit five to six shots with not the first five or six shots he’d hit would be with a 56 degree wedge and there’d be nothing, you know, he’d just have a swing. Didn’t matter where the ball went, what sort of shot it was, just to get loose and get feel. And then from that point on, every single shot he hit had a point to it. Whether he was working on the swing, the ball flight, the shape of the shot, everyone had a, you know, had a thought in mind. And so it was that kind of dedication that that was done on the practice range that that when he got onto the course he played so many wonderful shots under extreme pressure situations cuz he put himself on in that position in the range in his head so many times and you know bas I’d say to him so often it’s just another range seven iron tiger. There’s nothing more simple than that. And um he he he he practiced with a lot of dedication but also a lot of thought and was very meticulous in the way he went about it. He just didn’t go to the range and hit balls. Now, you know, you look at a lot of guys, they have a practice session and they just go to the range and they’ll hit two buckets of balls and in their head they say, “Oh, that’s good. I’ve hit my two buckets balls. I’ve accomplished that.” You know, I can say I practice today. But what did you practice? Was every shot how you wanted to be? Um, and he had certain drills um that he would do and he would never leave the range or the practice screen chipping area until he completed that drill. Um, and so he was, you know, he was very regiment in that way. Before we get back to our episode with Steve Williams, the future of America golf is now. Launched in 2023, the US National Development Program is the United States first unified pathway designed to guide top junior players all the way to the highest level of the sport. From competitive junior golf to amateur and eventually professional play, the USGA is helping chart that journey. The program identifies, trains, develops, funds, and supports the nation’s most promising young talent regardless of their cultural, geographic, or financial background. It’s all part of the USGA’s commitment to keeping American golf at the forefront of the global game. With national junior teams for boys and girls, an elite amateur team, and 17 state junior teams now in place, plus a national young professional team on the way, the impact is already being felt. And in 2025 alone, the USGA awarded over 100 grants to junior golfers in need, helping cover the cost of coaching, travel, tournaments, and more. Talent is everywhere, and opportunity should be, too. Learn more at usja.orgusmdp. Back to Steve Williams.
Stevie, when you were out there with him and he like he’s one of the most fierce competitors I think we’ve seen in any sport ever. When Tiger was running hot under the collar, like catties tend to step in and kind of know how to handle their guy. What was the way you handled Tiger when he was running a little a little warm? Well, the one thing I always noticed with Tiger when he was running a little warm is the adrenaline that he would get going, you know, and I could tell by when he would when the adrenaline was going, he would walk quicker, he would talk quicker, everything became a little bit quicker. Um, and I would the biggest thing I did was adjust the yardages all the time. I mean, I was constantly doing that. You know, if it was 160 and it’s a 9 iron, um, I’ I’d be telling them, you know, it’s 170 or something. um I’d be adjusting the yardage so often because he just got the adrenaline going and the ball started going further and further. So I had to be extremely aware of that and I got a very good handle on that. Um to the point where I can recall one round at Bay Hill uh in the final round of one of his victories there. I didn’t give him the same the right yardage, the correct yardage on any shot for the entire round. Now, you got to be careful when you’re on a par three and you know, one guy is saying it’s, you know, 195, which I know would be say a six iron and I’m telling Tiger it’s only 183. So, he hits a seven, you know, the seven on it, but doesn’t hit it, you know, doesn’t hit it as hard as he should be hitting it. I did that so often um when he got running hot and he got the adrenaline going.
That takes some balls. Yeah. Did he know that? Did he know that you tweak yardages or
Yeah, it it took him a little while to do it. the the first time I did it um in or the the first big time moment was on the 17th hole of the 90 of the 2000 the the 2000 PGA championship with when Tiger had that unbelievable battle with Bob May. We got to that 17th hole. The yardage said that it was a 56 degree wedge and I just knew Tiger could get a 60 there. So I moved the yardage back to so that he hit a full 60 that pin was on the front there and you know barely cleared the bunker and he makes birdie and goes on to you know win it in a playoff. Now had I been wrong you know had that have mucked up and he hit it in the bunker he wouldn’t have known but that was the first time I did it and then I can’t remember pinpoint exactly when he asked me something about it and whatever but he said you know you you just keep doing it you know what you’re doing.
That’s awesome. Well, if you look at Tiger’s career and when you were on the bag with him, like the guys that took him to the wire at major championships were lesserk known guys or guys that weren’t up to his caliber. I mean, Roco Media, Bob May, you mentioned we Chris Demarco, Yang actually got the best of him at Hazeline. What do you think it Yeah. Rich Beam? Yeah. What do you think it was about those guys that were able to be somewhat more successful against Tiger compared to the big names like Phil and VJ? Yeah, I I think if you look at it, you know, the guys like Phil and VJ, they were playing with Tiger week in and week out and they were frequently paired with him and to the point where, you know, nine times out of 10 when they were paired with Tiger, he got the better of them in the score that was posted on that day. So when you get a guy sort of an unheralded guy that’s not played with Tiger a lot and he’s playing with him in the final round of a major championship he you know everybody’s thinking oh Tiger’s going to win the tournament and and and you know there’s a lot of pressure we know that but these guys are sort of under no pressure if you know what I mean because they’re not expected to win um a and they rise to the occasion but because I’ve never been knocked off the tree as often as some of these other guys that played with Tiger frequently and you know there’s some you know like Tiger you Ernie Ell was an absolute wonderful player, fantastic player in that. But, you know, he he hardly ever got the better of Tiger and I think sometimes when you play with somebody on a regular basis, you know, whether it be golf, tennis, whatever it is, and and and someone keeps getting the better of you, you almost know that the guy is going to get the better of you. And I think that’s probably indicative of where these guys that weren’t expected to play uh put Tiger to to the best test. I mean, you’d have to probably say in all the major championships that Tiger played in my mind uh in the time that I was with him that Bob May tested Tiger um better than anyone and you know, just did not let down. And oddly enough, not oddly enough, but Tiger expected that from him because I’d never heard of Bob May and Tiger told me when this guy was a junior in Southern California, he was the man. I’m glad you brought that up and that that’s one of the best battles of all time in major championship histories. I’m glad you brought that up, Colt. Like the lessername guys because the media tried, Steve, I would say to manufacture a rival for Tiger Woods over and over. I mean, you had Dval, Phil, VJ, Ernie, you name it, and they never panned out. But if you had to name a guy who you think Tiger viewed that way, is there anybody? David Dal, unparalleled. He He thought that David had what it took to compete week in and week out and challenge him for number one supremacy. He he was the guy. Um but you know it was very a shortlived um time. You know David had that wonderful patch where he got to number one in the world catch of the open championship and then you know he made a drastic change with his body um and hence he he lost feel with his golf swing and that and it took him a long time to get it going again but he was the guy that he he had the most respect for and the guy that he thought could challenge him. If if you look back at some of these obviously you’ve seen so many great shots and we’re going to get to it but I I want to just pick out two specifically. I want to go to Hazeline on the 18th hole, fairway bunker, three iron, ball below the feet, just an unbelievable shot, and then 20,000 Canadian Open, the sixiron over the water. Which one was better?
Well, Cole, if you if you know, you’ve got a great take on that because if you ask me the two greater shots that they they were them. Oh, wow.
Um, yeah, 100%. to you know people talk about the chip in at Augusta obviously but that would come third but those two undoubtedly given the circumstances the 72nd hole at the Canadian Open with everything on the line um the PGA championship I believe was on the first round was either the first or the second round um so it you know if if you dropped a shot or didn’t drop a shot it wasn’t going to be the end of the world at that point but here’s a shot that um I mean it’s an unbelievable shot I mean if you if you go back there and have a look at the conditions uh it’s raining and then the ball wasn’t even sitting that great, you know, cuz there’s a lot of it been raining a lot and you know what it’s like in a bunker when the ball gets into the bunker and it rolls in there and it’s wet. It sort of almost rolls and when it comes to a stop it sort of just sits down a little bit. It wasn’t even that great a lie. I mean, it was an unbelievable shot.
Well, I I I was at the US Amter at Hazelton actually last year and they took a bunch of the kids in there and had them try to reenact it and not one of them could get it over the lip. They just kept drilling the lip and for him to hit a three iron with the ball that far below his feet. I mean, was that one of those shots you were like, “Hey, boss, like what the hell are you trying to do here?”
Oh, you know, that was one shot where, you know, I I was I guess when you’re catting for a guy like that who has, you know, a remarkable feel and a remarkable ability to hit a lot of different shots. Um, but that was one shot I just stood back and I I I couldn’t actually picture what he was trying to do here. Yeah,
there’s only one guy that can recreate that and that’s Johnson Wagner.
Yes,
we got to get him out there. Get him out there in that bunker. Stevie, I know you’ve told this story as you as you’ve kind of been making your rounds, but it’s so cool just to hear it from you and for our listeners that maybe haven’t, but 2000 US Open, golf balls, the story, can you tell it? Look, it’s a long story and I’ve I’ve covered it off in the book, but in a nutshell, um due to the circumstances of a fog delay on Friday and an early start on Saturday, earlier than what you would normally expect, um a US Open to be cuz it it, you know, back then it wasn’t a 7:00 Eastern finish. It was they played earlier, whatever it was, it was a Saturday’s restart was a continuation of Friday’s round. So, when I picked Tiger’s Tuts up in the morning because it was a continuation of the second round, uh I didn’t put any balls or gloves or need anything. I just picked the bag up, put it on my shoulder. We didn’t go to the putting green because of the early start. Tiger went to the driving range, got in the courtesy car to go out to the um in the in the van to go out to our allotted starting time uh hole and whatever. Got onto the tea there, you know, put my hand in the bag to get a ball out for the first hole in that. There’s only three balls there. I thought that’s a bit strange. There should have been more than that. when I’m, you know, we always start with nine. Um, and we only used three yesterday, so we’re three short. I didn’t give it much thought. First hole up the hill there, um, on the 13th hole there, um, hits it in the left rough there, hits it onto the green with a wedge. It was wet, the grass was wet, put a big scuff on the ball and, um, made birdie and then walked off the green and threw the ball to a very young man, a young uh, adult, young, a junior walking with his dad and he was so excited. I’m watching him, you know, he’s showing bad. I got this Tiger ball. Look bad dad. It’s got his name on it. There wasn’t a lot of, you know, people get considering the time in the morning. I almost wanted to go over and grab that ball cuz I thought just in case, but you know, I can’t be seen doing that. What’s going on here? Anyway, play 14, 15, 16, 17, no problem. Then on 18, obviously hits the ball in the water off the tea, you know, and uh now we’re down to one ball left. you know, if this one goes in the ocean or possibly goes out of bounds, um, and the other two guys we’re playing with aren’t playing a Nike ball, um, we’re in deep trouble here. So, you know, it’s the only time in my entire time of catting that I was actually nervous. And, you know, you’ve heard that saying, your ass is puckering. Well, I didn’t know what that mean or pickering, whatever that word they used. Well, I knew what that was right there and there on that P. I was nervous. I can’t imagine the the gist of the gist of the story is because we didn’t go to the putting green in the morning, there wasn’t enough time to do all the usual things. He didn’t go to the putting green, he puted on the carpet in his room and left three balls sitting on the floor in his room, which I didn’t see. That is wild. If we had hit if a Tiger had to hit, you know, the the second the provisional ball uh you know, either a way right out of bounds where you couldn’t find it or be hit that in back there in the ocean. Um you know, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now. The Tiger, when did he find out?
He he knew something was up. It was ironic. And this is just gives you an insight. How did the guy How different a guy thinks? You know, he he knew something was up and I could sense he knew, but he never said a word. You know, we we finished that round on on Friday, went back out later the day and played Saturday’s round, Sunday’s round. You know, won the US Open by 15 shots. An unbelievable treat and an unbelievable feat. Signs a scorecard and he comes down the stairs and I’m sitting at the stairs outside the scoring trailer with the clubs and everything and he says, “So, Stevie, tell me about what happened there on on Friday on the 18th.” I told him and he, you know, he had a great laugh. And then the next thing that he said to me, he said, “Steve, I’m going to play even better than I did this week at the Open Championship. You get your ass over there, I want you to know every blade of grass in that course before I get there.” That’s the kind of pressure it was working for Tiger. You know, I had a bunch of mates with me from New Zealand that were at that US Open at Pebble Beach. And, you know, I couldn’t celebrate because now I I just couldn’t celebrate in the way that you should celebrate because now that, you know, he’s told me, you know, he’s put me under pressure, if you know what I mean. Like, I he told me he was going to play even better. and I want you to know every blade of grass. Well, what did he do? He went over to St. Andrews, never hit in a bunker. And in the entire 13 years I came from, that was the best Tony blade. So, he was right.
Okay. So, St. Andrews was better than Pebble even though he won by
100% 100%. That was the that was the best 72 hole performance in the in the entire time that I came for Tiger was the open championship at St. Andrews.
I believe that’s where he had the blind shot and you told him to hit it like a TV tower and he hit it. He goes, “That one right there, Stevie?” Yeah. the steeple behind the green one ste you know you’re looking on the 14th hole behind the green there’s a big steeple church steeple that stands out and that but um yeah so you know it’s amazing he won that one by 15 the open US open at pe then went on you know and told me he’s going to play better uh and and you know like I said for a 72 hole performance he did because he had you know he made that triple bogey on the second the third hole uh at Pebble on the Saturday and he had another couple of holes where he scratched out some really you know testing cars if you like. But he at St. Andrews, he never put himself under pressure or any, you know, stress for 72 holes. It was remarkable. 72 holes of golf.
Yeah. Go over there, learn every inch, and then you didn’t even hit it. He didn’t hit it anywhere where he could have get in trouble. Just phenomenal. Well, I feel like we could talk for like four hours on this, but
I would love to at some point.
We got to get to the E9 here, Stevie, and have a little fun with you here. Um, I’m going to start out with another one about Tiger here. Uh, I need to know the biggest argument you ever got into Tiger with on the golf course. Um it was at the mast’s champ masters I can’t exactly remember what year it was but I I’d been out in the course early in the morning and knew where the tea placement was on the third hole. They’d move the tea right up to the very front which I’d never seen before. Sometimes I’ve seen them move it up 10 to 12. They put it right on the front of the tea. Easy to knock it on the green there. He and um he made made a 4-4 start. It was automatic in my mind that he needed to hit driver there. I couldn’t talk him into it and I did. He hit the worst shot he’s ever hit over to the trees in the right. took bogey which basically took him out of the tournament because probably the scoring average might have been 3.5 or six on that hole on that day and yeah he didn’t say a word to me for the next five holes and going up the ninth hole I dressed him down and gave him a speech that he’d never heard before and that that was the first and only major argument that we ever had. Wow. All right.
Pretty damn good
because he’s been known to lay I mean he always lays up there on the third or at least back in the day he did.
Yeah. Well, in my mind, you just had to have a go because it was, you know, off the front of the tea there, it was feasible, you know, with a lot of luck that you could leave the ball on the putting surface, but it was very easy to hit the ball, you know, up onto the putting surface and over behind the green there where it’s a pretty simple up and down. So, yeah,
we’ll be back to Steve Williams in just a moment, but first, a message presented by Enterprise Mobility. The road to opportunity is often the road overlooked. That’s why Enterprise Mobility offers new roads to help drive your business forward. With mobility solutions like fleet management, flexible truck rental, and an unmatched global network, they can help your business find the right solutions. Their mobility experts can find smarter ways to scale your business. So, you’re not just growing bigger, you’re getting bigger. The more ways we all have to move forward, the further we’ll all go. Find your road at enterprisemobility.com. Now, back to Steve Williams. Okay, first one for me, Steve. I was going to ask you greatest shot you ever saw a Tiger hit outside of the the chip in on, you know, at the 05 Masters, but since you’ve already answered that, I’ll change it up. Let’s just say Tiger, Prime Tiger, he’s got one golf course, one tournament, he has to win it. His life is on the line. What golf course would you go to?
Cory Pines over Firestone, Bay Hill, all that.
Oh, yeah. just because he, you know, he he he he obviously at Firestone had a remarkable record, but he just loved Tory Pines. He had a bit of a fascination with that course because it was the first time that he went to watch a golf tournament with Tory Pines. Um they played that um he’s a tournament, I forget what they call it, it’s a kids tournament America. um
Junior World. Junior World um which was held held there um on a number of times. He just loved that course. It was a course that he said always suited his eye. So when he said that a course suited his eye, um that was all that was an indication of how much he loved the course.
Um okay, I’ll ask you this. Did you uh win more majors with Tiger or lose more teeth at the 1987 Spanish Open driving range? more majors. Yeah, I lost a few teeth. That was back in the days cop um when caddies had to catch the balls on the range, you know, to pick the the balls up and that was a range uh the oddest range that um you couldn’t you could only see the top of the guy when you’re standing at the back of the range hit catching the foxing. We used to call it foxing balls, foxing the drivers. You could only cuz the back of the range sort of went down a little bit. You could only see the top of your guy swinging and that and there’s balls going everywhere and I was scanning V and Baker Finchy and got one straight in the mouth and got three my three teeth knocked out. So, um, fortunately 14 majors outweighs three teeth.
I mean that that is insane to me. So, I mean obviously I wasn’t around back then when this is happening. So, there’s just all the caddies are out there on the range and there’s just balls flying everywhere and you’re trying to catch them.
Oh, 100%. That’s and when I used to work for Greg Norman, um he he would give me a hundred bucks if I could catch every one. And I used to this guy Nick Depal who I was talking about earlier on, he he used to use a baseball glove, which a lot of guys did. I just wrapped a towel around my hand and used a towel because sometimes uh in the baseball the ball hit so hard in the glove that it would come out quickly, you know, you to snatch it quickly, whereas a towel soften the blow and you can catch it. So uh it was like, you know, it was it was bedim on the driving range. But um golly, that’s wild.
That’s back when men were men. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Now they got robots. There’s not even people driving the damn things to pick them up anymore.
Got all the ball different ball types. We’re soft soft now. Um all right, Stevie. Next one for me. First thought to winning in your mind when you dropped Tigers 9 iron into the lake at the 2006 RDER Cup. Let’s hope he doesn’t need that club again. And and then it was just ironic. We’re playing uh alternate shot and on the very next hole he needs a nine iron. That’s unbelievable.
And and um yeah, when when he we said uh he’s looking for the nine iron, I said, “Oh, by the way, I dropped that in the lake back there.” So, you know that the story about the no golf balls at Pebble Beach and myself dropping the club into the into the um lake there at the K Club at the Ryder Cup. Uh we we we had so many laughs about that. Yeah,
that was a funny moment.
That was a good moment.
That was funny. Um give me Tiger’s biggest pet peeve
towards his caddy. Like what’s the one thing that drives him nuts?
I used to leave the zippers open on the golf bag and I’ve done it with every pro I’ve heippers on. He goes, “Steve, I’ve got my money in there. I got my watch in there. I got my Stanford marker in there and that. Please zip the bag up. And I just it was just a bad habit I always had, you know, never zipping the all the pockets up on the golf bag. And he hated that.
Yeah. My I had an old caddy DEF that used to be like that. Just bag just bags wide open.
Tiger stuff would be some hands maybe wandering into that thing. I would think if you set it down too close to the ropes.
Um all right, Stevie. I need to know why did you defy doctor’s instructions not to fly or swim after your racing accident in 2005? Yeah, look, I mean, you know, when you are committed to do something, you tell someone you’re going to be somewhere. Um, I’m extremely hard-headed and, you know, I didn’t feel like it was that big. I had some broken ribs and so forth and that, but it was quite an amazing thing cuz I was told you can’t fly and you can’t swim. So, the accident was on Saturday night and and Monday, uh, with Monday New Zealand time, Sunday, uh, I flew to Honolulu and then over there to Kapalura. Uh, and the first thing, okay, so I succeed on the flight and the first thing I do when I got there, I went for a swim and and to be fair, the swim relieved the pressure from the broken rib. So, doctors.
Yeah. Um, but yeah, like you know, like when you commit to caddy for somebody uh and you you know, particularly it’s Tiger. I I didn’t you know, in the entire time I c for Tiger, I only missed one tournament. It was the Presence Cup when um my son was born and one other time. So only two times. So um you know I couldn’t tell to had an accident racing and we Hey Steve, you got some dangerous activity. Maybe you shouldn’t be racing mechanic for me. Maybe he thought that, maybe he didn’t. But um yeah,
these doctors are full of [ __ ] Anyway, Steve. Um all right, I got two more for you real quick. Okay. Obviously there’s a lot of great catty nicknames out there. I need to know your favorite caddy nickname. And did you have one?
Um the the best nickname there was a guy called Silly Billy. Um, and this guy car, this was back in the late 70s and 80s when I was cing on the European tour. Now, silly Billy never had a yardage book, right? Or sorry, he had he carried a notebook, had nothing in it. He just went around and made everything up. And he carried for a guy called Jose Rivero, uh, who was a Spanish guy and he was a very good player. Made the Ryder Cup team one year. And it was just so funny. I I’ll never forget I was paired with him one day and we’re playing at Kron Susier up in the very high altitude at the European Masters and he Jose one thing and he grabbed that yard book off Silly Billy and had a look at play the pages blank he just he just make he was unbelievable this guy he just he look at the markers on the fairway or the sprinkler heads but to be fair most of the courses had if they did have sprinkles they weren’t marked in those days but all the courses had the you know the 150 the 200 whatever markers to the middle of the green. He just guessed everything. He was unbelievable. So, um, and, um, my nickname was the craze kiwi. Uh, I don’t know where that came from, to be honest. Um, what about the sheep shagger?
What’s that?
What about the sheep shagger?
Oh, well, that wasn’t a nickname, but that, you know, Tiger used to call me that, and I said, you know, don’t knock until you’ve tried it. I like that.
Amen.
Amen. All right, last one for me, Stephen. We need to know why did you carry your own cereal bowl and spoon in your luggage to every tournament when you were accounting for Adam Scott?
Yeah. Um, let’s just say um I could eat probably more cereal for breakfast than the average person. So, I needed to have a bowl instead of I I I didn’t want to have to fill it up twice. I just had this big bowl.
You traveled with your own bowl.
That’s some love for cereal. Love that.
Yeah. I had a blue cereal bowl. still got it to this day and I traveled with it and that was my, you know, morning breakfast and if I it just had the right amount. It didn’t need less, didn’t need more. That was my requirement for breakfast every day. So, I just had my own bowl. So, I knew that was, you know, it was like taking medicine. You had to have this many pills and whatever. Well, I had to have this much cereal
and spoon. That’s nice. What was your go-to cereal?
Um, I used to even look, you wouldn’t believe this cult. I used to bring my own cereal with me as well.
Wow.
Yeah. It was neutral grain. It’s an Australian cereal actually. Um and I used to buy some gran I used to mix the um neutrorain with a granola that I used to get uh from the supermarket. So yeah, I mean these days you can’t take food with you, but that’s only happened since 9/11 where they’re really strict on taking food uh in your luggage. But yeah, I used to take boxes of Neutri how many weeks weeks away I was going to be. So yeah,
I love it. Nice. All right, last one. Has one of your players ever played a different driver shaft in a round and he didn’t know he was playing a different driver shaft?
Um I think you know where that question’s going is at um at the PLM open it was called in Sweden um where I was a guest of Fanny Sunerson because it’s where Fanny lived and it’s where she started her cing journey. Um, we were mucking around on the driving range and I was hitting Ian Baker Finch’s clubs and I snapped the shaft on the driving range being a little bit stupid. So, I had to get the local pro to put the the whatever shaft he had available which was not the shaft that was using. Um, yeah. So, I never got fired over that. But that was another good story. Hold on. Now, I’m amazed that you knew that story.
Oh, I I you know, we do some research over here. I heard you didn’t tell him though and he didn’t know and the next day he’s like man this kind of feels different.
Yeah, I during the round I didn’t tell him. Um and then we went back to London and he would practice at a place called Sunningale and we he was playing um something on the Monday, maybe a charity or some kind of outing and he just said, you know, this drive is just not feeling like it is. And then I had to open up and said, well, this is actually what happened after play on Saturday. a bunch of us caddies went to the driving range when everyone was gone and started practicing and um what actually happened is we were trying to we we we were doing the like a thing that Padrick Harrington used to do and you know tease three or four but balls up and row and just go you know one after another after another after another and I wasn’t very successful in doing that and I I hit the ground so far behind the ball that the shaft broke.
Oh my gosh, that’s incredible. I love that you didn’t tell him till he got to London. Yeah. Yeah. So, hey, look, along the way, you know, when you cing now has become, you know, a very lucrative profession and a very sought after profession and it’s a lot more serious than it ever used to be. But, Cole, when we used to start when I started catting back in the 70s and ‘ 80s, it was a hoot. Uh, to the point where we even had a caddy 15 rugby team u when we were on the European tour and three or four times a year, we’d play a match against a social team somewhere along the line. Um, and it’s the only time that I’ve ever had to put the clubs on a trundler. Um, I was cing at the open championship for Ray Floyd and one of the practice rounds I had to pull the bag on a trundler because we played a a social match on the Tuesday night uh against a university 15 and this guy pounded me so hard I I couldn’t walk the next day. So, you know, look, we used to do things like that. We used to train and have a you know so the whole scenario of cing has changed and rightfully everything evolved from that but uh back in the early days and that was it was a fun job a lot of memories and then it got you know more serious as as it’s gone on to the point now it’s it’s you know it’s a sought after profession and and rightfully so absolutely
we’ll see Ted Scott get out there and play some rugby you know what I mean. Well, Stevie, you’re one of the best ever. Do it, man. Thank you so much to you and Evan Priest for writing this awesome book, Together We We Roar. It was a phenomenal read, and we really appreciate you joining us here on Subpar.
Yeah. No, a big shout out to Evan. um it was his idea and he he he’s done a wonderful job writing it and and we wanted to give basically the reader a backstage pass if you like to what it was like to carry a Tiger and some of the things like you know what is it like flying on a private jet and how the things happen when you want you know just give a a person a backstage pass to you know what was arguably one of the best runs in golf and um Evan’s been very successful in doing that so we were very happy how it turned out yeah thanks for having us on the show
yes thank you for writing it
all right that Steve Williams joining us on Golf Subar. You seriously need to go check out the book Together We Together We Roar with Evan Priest. Uh, awesome read, great stories, even more than what he told us there on the episode. But I’ve heard of Catty’s like fidgeting, fudging the numbers here just every once in a while, but it sound like he did it quite a bit. That shocked me that I mean, by the way, that takes some balls to go out there and do that. If you give him a shorter number and he plugs it in the top lip of a bunker and then he, you know, goes back and looks at I was always like I Tiger strikes me as the type of guy that would like watch reruns or have re you know of some of his tournaments and if he sees it on the screen he’s like oh 110 Tiger here on number seven and he’d be like Stevie told me that was 104 you know I don’t know how he never caught on to it. Clearly it worked because they had the greatest run of any golfer really ever. I think Stevie was a part of the greatest golf ever played. You can argue the Tiger and the Jack stuff but I think the best golf um ever played by any human was Tiger Woods Peak. You know, you could you could look at the 2000 US Open is probably my opinion, although Stevie has, you know, thinks it was at the Open Champion, you know, feels it was at the Open Championship. So, there’s some cool stories in that thing. And it’s cool that they kind of, you know, reconciled after the split and uh that he’s able to share all these stories. You know, we got a lot of good like Tiger stories lately between the two books.
Yeah, I was shocked by him saying that the the best golf he saw Tiger play was the Open Championship where I mean, you win one by 15, one by eight. They’re both freaking great. But, um, that’s pretty awesome to hear him say. He’s like he just didn’t miss a shot basically the entire week. Went out there, told Steve he was going to play better at the British Open and he went out there and did it. Um, it’s awesome. Love sitting down, Steve. I thought the driver shaft story with Ian Baker Finch. Just good.
Uh, put one in here. Yeah, I don’t know what it is, boss.
I don’t know, but yeah, boss. You just don’t have it. It’s all right. We’ll go and we’ll figure it out.
But thanks to Steve for sitting us sitting down with us and make sure you go check out that book. And also, if you’re looking to level up your golf gear, custom is the way to go. I just grabbed a few Birdie Juice TE’s. Super easy process and they turned out great. You can do the same. Pick your favorite logo and customize polos, hats, hoodies, and more. All from the top golf brands. Make it personal and make it quick. Head to shop.golf.com and gear up with something you’ll actually wear.
I got something coming for you for your 40th.
You do?
I don’t want to tell you what it is, but it may or may not involve birds.
You told me you had some coming my 39th and still waiting.
Yeah. I don’t get You don’t get guys birthday presents. It’s weird.
Okay.
40th maybe. Anything else? You buy your friends birthday presents.
Yeah.
I don’t even know my friends birthdays.
That’s nice. Yeah. I mean, I barely know my wife’s. Um, in other news, by the way, you the latest episode of some stuff we’ve been filming with our friends over at Zone came out from Las Vegas
from the 8 a.m. Invitational from the beautiful Win Las Vegas that’s coming out. We had a great little par three hole setup where the everybody came up, hit some shots, did a little walk and talk,
took some potentially some people’s dragging some ass too at that thing. But yeah, cool video. Check that out. It’s up on the socials right now.
All right, and get ready cuz next week we’re going to have the US Open champ in the studio with the trophy. JJ Spawn will join us. That’s going to do it for us. We’ll talk to you on next week’s subpar. La. [Music] Shut up.

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by longtime PGA Tour caddie Steve Williams for an exclusive interview. The man on Tiger Woods’ bag for 13 years breaks down the pressure of working for the world’s best golfer, the greatest shots he ever saw him hit and the biggest argument they ever had.
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