Tiger Woods was told by Steve Williams “to ‘F’ off,” and they each hung up the phone.
The sequence then repeated itself before Woods called a third time.
After all, he was wondering if Williams … would want to be his caddie?
Williams tells the story well, and he did so both on this week’s episode of GOLF’s “Subpar” podcast (which you can watch by clicking here) and in the book “We Roared Together,” which he co-authored with Evin Priest (and can be purchased here). On “Subpar,” Williams set things up by saying that he had arrived at the 1999 Doral Open with his then-pro, Raymond Floyd, and he’d heard that Woods had parted ways with his caddie at the time, Mike “Fluff” Cowan.
We’ll let Williams take it from here.
“I didn’t really give it much thought,” Williams said on the podcast. “And Tuesday night in my hotel room — this is just after arriving from New Zealand jet lag — we had the phone ring 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 tee — his swing, his body language, his movement, his voice and da, da, da.
“I just thought it was him, and no uncertain terms — it was fairly late in the evening — I just told him to ‘F’ off and give me a ring tomorrow. A couple minutes later, the phone rings, 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.
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“And sure enough, it wasn’t; it was Tiger. So that was a very good start about the banter that Kiwis have and Aussies have, that sort of our way of thinking is a little bit different, I guess, to what Tiger would be used to. So we got off to a good start there.”
But why Williams as Woods’ caddie?
“Subpar” co-host Drew Stoltz asked that, and Williams thought the choice was based on his personality.
“I’ve always had a reputation as a stand-up sort of a guy,” Williams said on the podcast. “I’m not scared to voice my opinion and not scared to back myself, if you like.
“And Tiger asked a few people — Mark O’Meara, his good mate; Butch Harmon, his coach at the time; and a couple other people. Obviously each person Tiger asked, they had a few different caddies, but my name was synonymous with all the people that he asked, and that’s how it came about.”
Editor’s note: To watch the complete episode of GOLF’s “Subpar” podcast featuring Williams, please click here or scroll immediately below. To purchase “We Roared Together” co-authored by Williams, please click here.
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