Tiger Woods’ caddie tells all: He treated me like a slave
Tiger Woods’ caddie tells all: He treated me like a slave
Tiger Woods’ former caddie has teed off on him, saying the golfer treated him as a “slave” and routinely behaved like a spoiled brat.
Excerpts from “Out of the Rough,” a book by Steve Williams, were published Sunday and painted an unflattering image of an immature and temperamental Woods.
“One thing that really pi–ed me off was how he would flippantly toss a club in the general direction of the bag, expecting me to go over and pick it up,” Williams wrote. “I felt uneasy about bending down to pick up his discarded club — it was like I was his slave. The other thing that disgusted me was his habit of spitting at the hole if he missed a putt.”
Tiger’s career came apart on Thanksgiving night 2009, when he crashed his car following an argument with then-wife Elin Nordegren, who had just learned of Tiger’s rampant cheating. Williams, Woods’ caddie from 1999 to 2011, says he was collateral damage.
“People in my local community would front up to me at the shops and call me a liar to my face, and ask ‘what are you doing with him?’ ” Williams wrote.
The caddie says his name was dragged through the mud and Tiger’s people didn’t help him. According to the caddie, others within Tiger’s inner circle helped the pro score women, so exonerating Williams would have revealed others as enablers.
Tiger Woods and ex-caddie Steve Williams shake hands after the Presidents Cup in Australia.AP
“They simply wouldn’t do it because there were others in his group who knew exactly what was going on and management felt they couldn’t single out one person as innocent,” Williams said. “Angry, frustrated and hung out to dry, I was also in limbo about when I would next work.”
The caddie insisted he would have put his foot down had he known about Tiger’s cheating.
“Only a handful of his oldest buddies actually had any idea this was going on,” Williams wrote. “I didn’t know because Tiger didn’t dare tell me. We had such a strong bond and working relationship that there was no way he could let me in on what was happening.”
