Sydney: Outspoken caddie Steve Williams says former employer Tiger Woods has lost his intimidation factor, as the New Zealander revealed he will quit full-time golf this year.
Williams, who was sacked by Woods in 2011 after helping him win all but one of his 14 major titles, added that he had yet to reconcile with the world number one, but hopes to one day.
“There’s just personal things and differences of opinion about how things went down. He thinks one thing and I think another,” Williams, who now carries the bags of Australian world number two Adam Scott, told Fox Sports late on Tuesday.
“I need to sort that out with him. But I haven’t had the opportunity sit down with him and iron out a few things, but it will happen at some stage.”
Williams was fired after Woods’ slide down the world rankings following the revelation that the American had a string of extramarital affairs.
Since then, Woods has failed to win another major and Williams said it was because the intimidation factor had gone.
“He doesn’t have the intimidation factor anymore. That was a big thing, guys were quite intimidated by him but there is no intimidation anymore. That counts for a lot,” he said.
Williams switched to Scott after his dismissal, and has helped transform him into a major champion and the heir apparent to Woods’s world number one ranking.
But after a career that has also seen him caddie for Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd, Williams said it was time to slow down.
“Adam knows my intentions. He knows that 2014 will be my last year of doing it full-time so he knows that if I’m going to carry on in 2015 it will be on a limited basis,” Williams said.
“So we’re just trying to focus on having the best year that we can in 2014 and then we’ll discuss it at the end of the year.”
Williams said three-and-a-half decades on tour was enough.
“I think it’s my 36th year of continuous caddying, so 36 is a number that’s sort of synonymous with golf,” he said.
“I’ve just turned 50 and I just thought it was the right time. I’ve not had enough of the job, but I’ve certainly had enough of the travelling.
“So at the end of this year I might carry on on a part-time basis or I might quit altogether.”
US Open
Meanwhile, the San Diego City Council is to vote Monday on whether to host the tournament in 2021, USGA spokesman Joe Goode said Tuesday. That would be 13 years after Tiger Woods won his third US Open and 14th major in a 19-hole playoff over Rocco Mediate.
The San Diego Union-Tribute first reported the USGA invitation’s to Torrey Pines.
“We’re honoured and thrilled by the strong show of support from Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the city of San Diego, and about the prospects of brining the US Open back to a venue that hosted one of the most iconic victories in all of sports,” Goode said in an email.
The 2008 Open at Torrey Pines, a public course along the bluffs of the Pacific Ocean, stands out as the one of the most memorable majors because of who won and how he won. Woods was playing on a shattered left leg and had not competed in two months. He had not walked an 18-hole round from the Masters that year until he showed up at Torrey Pines for the Open.
Woods birdied the 18th hole in regulation to force a Monday playoff, and he made another birdie on the 18th hole in the playoff to force extra holes. He won on the 19th hole (No. 7) with a par to defeat Mediate.
Woods had surgery to repair knee ligaments two days later and was out the rest of the year. He has not won another major since.
Torrey Pines annually hosts the Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour, a tournament Woods has won seven times.
Faulconer told the newspaper he believes the council will be “strongly supportive” of hosting another US Open.
Torrey Pines had not been mentioned lately as a future US Open venue, and it had been looked upon as a potential PGA Championship site.
This year’s US Open is at Pinehurst No. 2, which is hosting the national championship for the third time since 1999. If San Diego accepts the invitation, the US Open over the next eight years will be played at three public courses, two resorts and three private courses.
