The former Cigrams Williams of Tiger Woods has supported him to overcome his latest obstruction of damage and believes that the Masters’ five-time sample career is “No Still”.
Woods has played a limited schedule in recent years after a car accident in February 2021 left it with threatened career injuries and foot injury, making only 11 official beginnings over the past four seasons and finishing 72 holes in just four cases.
The former world No. 1 will lose masters – Live April 10-13 in Sky SportS – after breaking his Achilles, raising doubts about his participation in the rest of the diplomas this season and when he will be able to turn into competitive action.
Williams Cadded to him from 1999 to 2011, playing an important role in ‘Tiger Slam’ and 13 out of his 15 big victories, with the new Zealander still waiting for Woods to try and challenge again for diplomas.
“Tiger’s still got a task in hand,” Williams told Podcast Sky Sports Golf. “Of course he is injured with another obstacle, but I really believe he will not give the opportunity to win another major away.
“He will want to practice and reach the point where he thinks he can stay in Tee and compete physically for 72 holes, knowing that he has been given any practice he can do to get there and try and gain a greater one.
“He’s not done yet!”
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Would Tiger’s career have been different without Williams?
Williams had already been a caddy for over 20 years and worked for the big winners Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd when he replaced Mike “Fluff” Cowan Si Woods’ Looper in March 1999, where it became clear where the advantages of Future Grand Slam Winner stayed.
“When I went to get tiger work and talked to him about what his plan is and what his goals were, it was merely overwhelming in the main championships,” Williams explained.
Tiger Woods and Steve Williams partnership is the most successful in major history
“After his victory at The Masters (1997), he had not won another great championship when I went to the bag in 1999. With every passing major, he is a less chance to win one and he is not taking his career on the right track he wanted to get. I could feel it immediately.”
The duo enjoyed great success later that year in the PGA Championship, where Williams’ decision to overthrow Woods in the penultimate hole made them see outside the then adolescence Sergio Garcia in Medinah.
“Tiger read Putti and said he was out of the hole, but I assured him it was inside the hole – it was a big call,” Williams admitted. “It is the first time we have had a chance to win a major. He is actually a little mistaken by the extension and Sergio (Garcia) ‘took the crowd after him.
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“He knocked out what he went inside and who knows where his career could have gone if he had not knocked him and went to defeat Sergio. The second major I think is the most difficult to win and you see the number of excellent players, realized players who won only a big championship.
“Tiger obviously won it in 1999, so he is not starting 2000 with that extra pressure of trying to win that second major and to start this run. In a great moment, I exceeded Tiger and I was accurate and this is where a great amount of our faith that followed in the following years was born.”
Woods won three of the four diplomas in 2000, including US Open and Open from a record difference, before winning masters in next April to hold all four diplomas at the same time.
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He remains the last player to win the green jacket in the successive years, after defending his title in 2002 to see him claim US Open, part of an extraordinary run of seven wins in 11 degrees.
“Everything was towards the record of Jack (Nicklaus) of the 18 main championships,” Williams said. “As every year passed together and every major passed, there was only more and more pressure on him. Aposh there and then, I really believed he would eclipse it.
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“His dedication, his push, his practice, the way he played and prepared for him and we peaked for the major was better than anyone else. It is a lot of pressure caddiing for tiger, but it is pressure and great things we have flourished.”
That chip and their heritage together
Woods failed to add to his great results over the next two seasons, but made changes to the 2005 masters, beating Chris Dimarco in a play-off, after producing one of the biggest shots in the mainstream of his extraordinary chip in the three of the 16th.
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“While Tiger hit the ball in tee and I’m thinking ‘Jez, this is little left!”, “Williams reflected.
“I was thinking it’s in the bunker, then it’s not bunker. Then it’s in the water, it’s not in the water now – I don’t know where it is gone and what is there! Tiger, as we are walking from tee to green, asking me what is there. I don’t know what is there!
“Tiger said: ‘Do you think that if you lower the ball on this tar of the pitch, it won’t roll too high on the hill or take too much speed will come back and go too far from the hole?’ Well, he landed the ball exactly in that sign of the pitch.
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“He could stay there for the rest of his life and hit as many shots as he wanted, he would never reproduce that stroke – it was just an extraordinary moment.”
Williams was there to comfort him a year later in Open, the first first won since the passage of Woods’s father, Earl, with their close connection that stretched out of the golf course until their split in 2011.
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Together we got raised – Williams’ new book for his time with Woods – reflects more at the end of their partnership and limited communication since that time, with veteran Caddy Feeling ‘Fortunate’ that has passed so long along with the 82 PGA Tour winners.
“When he came to the course, he was all business,” Williams said. “That was his job, he had a task and he wanted to do that task to the maximum of his ability every single day coming to the Golf Course.
“He probably had a softer side, which only those people around him would see the golf course. He had a very good touch. He says nothing without any sense and he takes his time.
“I was very lucky to hold for one of the biggest players ever and be part of some golf stories. He was an extraordinary guy to work for him and he was very generous for myself and my whole family.
“I have nothing but praise for the boy and I feel very lucky to have been able to stand by him and watch him play some of the best golf ever played.”
Listen to the full interview of Steve Williams in the latest edition of Podcast Sky Sports Golf, waited every week by Jamie Weir. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Sprker, while Vodcast publications can be found on YouTube Golf Sports channel.
