As Tiger Woods and SteveWilliams embraced in their customary victory gesture after winning last year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills in suffocating Tulsa, Oklahoma, I could just here them adapting that line of Mark Twain ("The report of my death is an exaggeration") to “The report of our impending split is a load of bollocks”.
While golf is the most individual of sports, Team Tiger is one of sport’s great partnerships, and an unusually enduring one in such a fickle, elusive game.
Tiger Woods’ entire life has been carefully plotted for him and by him, and he knew what he was about when he sacked his first tour caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan, and sent off his then coach Butch Harmon to ask permission of Ray Floyd, Williams’ employer of 10 years, to approach the strapping Kiwi who’s been a globetrotting caddie since he was 15.
At the time, Williams might reasonably have considered packing it in after two lucrative decades working for Floyd, and before him Greg Norman, who made a regrettable decision to sack the world’s top bagman. At the age of 35, Steve Williams grabbed the opportunity of a lifetime. “He’s the best caddie I ever had. The only one who didn’t choke”, said Floyd as Williams left to join Woods with his blessing.
Their first event was Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Invitational in March 1999, and by the end of the year Team Tiger II had won 7 times, including Jack Nicklaus’s treasured Memorial tournament, the PGA championship, and two of the mega-rich World Championship of Golf events.
Seven years later, and with a 13th major championship in the bag, (incidentally giving Steve Williams his 120th career win) the world’s elite players – and Tiger himself – are unanimous that the genius of the player alone, couldn’t have achieved what he has without Williams alongside him.
Personal qualities have a lot to do with it. Steve Williams is an uncomplicated, engaging, forthright character, but suitably private and discreet, and a reluctant star. On the course he’s got the guts to call the shots. Within 12 months of the birth of their partnership, the boss was singing Williams’ praises, telling the Dallas Morning News “He’s so positive out there, keeps me upbeat. I get on with him, he gets on with me. We have a good time out there. If I’m playing good or bad, we’re going to enjoy each other’s company”.
A close friendship evolved naturally to the point where they’ve played major roles at each other’s wedding, and they regularly workout and run with – or rather against – each other. Fitness played a significant part in last month’s win in Tulsa where temperatures soared breathtakingly into the mid-40s. Woods said after his victory he felt as fresh on the final green as when he teed off, while Williams toted that 16 kilo bag like it was a feather weight.
Understandably, Tiger Woods’ phenomenal earning power is reflected in his mate’s rewards. The standard rates for PGA tour caddies are a weekly retainer of $US1,000, and a 10% share of winning purses, scaled down for top-5 and top-10 finishes.
In Williams’ case, it’s thought to be a weekly retainer of $US5,000, and a flat rate of 10% of Tiger’s total earnings. The caddie’s winning percentages from Tiger’s 12 major titles with Steve on the bag amount to $US1.25 million, and 10 percent of Tigers total worldwide earnings in the period of their partnership to date works out to $US7.3 million.
The world number one went on to scoop the $US10 million winner’s cheque from the PGA tour’s inaugural Fedex Cup series, his 2007 earnings topping a phenomenal $US20 million. Little wonder when Steve arrives home at the end of each year, journeyman ANZ tour pros ask him where he finished on the money list this year. Ands this could be their best year yet. Woods has won his first two starts in 2008, making it 7 wins from his last 8 events, including his own unofficial “benefit” tournament, the Target World Challenge.
In that context, it’s laughable to think that even the BBC was gullible enough to run the rumour six months ago of Team Tiger’s impending break-up! It’ll be a big story when it happens, but I’m inclined to believe Steve Williams will still be shadowing his boss until he witnesses history, when Tiger inevitably breaks Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles.
Thu 28 Feb 2008 23:05 – © Garry Ahern
