Well… that’s one way to go about caddying.
There more than meets the eye when it comes to the job of a caddy. Most people probably think caddies just carry the golf bag for professional golfers, and though that’s definitely a part of the job title, there’s a multitude of other things they are responsible for, like:
-Providing yardages and other information
-Helping maintain the course when necessary
-Being there for emotional support during the round
One of the most famous caddies in the history of golf, Steve Williams, did all of those things for none other than Tiger Woods. He carried the bag for Tiger from 1999 to 2011. If you are familiar with the that run of Woods… those 12 years were the most dominant of Tiger’s incredible, hall-of-fame career.
Steve Williams and Tiger Woods won 13 major championships together in that span, if that tells you anything.
Considering that, you’d think that the relationship between Tiger and his caddy must have been built on an inordinate amount of trust. And in a way, it was… it just depends on how you look at the fact that Steve Williams was apparently giving Tiger Woods wrong yardages and other false information during Tiger’s most dominant decade.
Steve Williams was recently a guest on the Subpar podcast, and it was during that conversation that the longtime caddy explained his secret to getting Woods fired up during competition:
“The one thing I always noticed for Tiger when he was running a little warm is the adrenaline that he would get going. I could tell that when the adrenaline was going, he would walk quicker, he would talk quicker. Everything became a bit quicker.
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 yards and it’s a 9-iron, I’d be telling him it’s 170 or something. I’d be adjusting the yardages so often because he just got the adrenaline going and ball started going further and further.”
So like the Hulk… Tiger Woods was just always angry?
Williams went on to elaborate on his strategy, saying that he had to very careful and precise while he was ironically giving Tiger the wrong information. The famous caddy even pointed out that he remembers one round when he went a full 18 holes without giving Tiger the write info.
Oh, and Tiger still won:
“I had to be extremely aware of that and I got a very good handle on that, to the point where I can recall one round at Bay Hill in the final round of one of his victories there. I didn’t give him the right yardage – the correct yardage – on any shot for the entire round… I did that so often when he got running hot and got the adrenaline going.”
Now if you are super confused by all of this, don’t feel alarmed. It is a bit of a brain teaser. All you need to know is that even when Tiger was off a bit, he was still incredibly accurate. I’d guess that being off just a bit drove Woods to try and swing better and better each time, and that evidently worked wonders.
Tiger Woods eventually figured out what Steve was doing… yet he didn’t tell him to stop, according to Williams:
“Yeah. It took him a while to (figure it out). I can’t remember or pinpoint exactly when he asked me something about it. He said, ‘Just keep doing it. You know what you are doing.'”
I’m always here for a Tiger Woods greatness story.
And if you want to hear more about the relationship between Steve Williams and Tiger Woods, this video below from Golf Digest is a great watch:
