Tiger and Stevie's Start

Ten years ago at Doral Stevie was working for Raymond Floyd. Rumors were flying on telecaddy, “Fluff was on his way out, Tiger’s looking for a new caddy.” Caddies don’t solicite Tiger’s bag, he comes looking for you. Nobody knew if the chatter was true, but we’d all give our left one to work for Tiger. Steve Williams and Raymond had been together for quite awhile, and were doing quite well on the Senior Tour back then. Why would Tiger want a Senior Tour caddy?

Steve got the call Friday or Saturday night; I’m not quite sure. He had been out to dinner, and when he got back there was a message on his room phone. He listened and thought it was a joke. I remember getting a call from Stevie, “Alright, who’s (expletive deleted) messing with me.” He called a few of his mates; everybody laughed, but denied placing the call. After about an hour he called the number left on the message; it was Tiger on the other end.

Everyone knew Stevie’s was a great caddy and worked for Norman in his prime. He grew up a caddy and started caddying on the Australian Tour when he was still in high school. Steve’s a good player who can handle the pressure and the limelight; he doesn’t want any of the recognition, he just shows up and caddies. A while back “Cowboy” was giving Stevie some “poop” about how he was dressed; jeans and a tee shirt were no match for “Cowboy’s” flashy hat and boots.

Stevie turned to “Cowboy” and said, “Mate, I don’t care how I look, I just show up and caddy. That’s all I care about.”

Tiger was looking for a no nonsense guy who could handle the pressure; he found one of the best. Tiger consulted Butch Harmon, his coach at the time, Norman, Raymond, O’meara and others before settling on Steve. There may have been some other names suggested and I’m sure a few boys contacted Tiger, but they were never in the running. In fact, O’Meara’s caddy supposedly lost his job because he threw his name in the hat.

Stevie chatted with Tiger and set up a meeting the next week. They met; discussed things; and Tiger decided Stevie was the right bag man. He called me after the meeting, told me what was going on, and said, “Raymond wants you to work for him.”

I tried to convince Stevie to stay with Raymond and let me have Tiger’s bag, but for some reason he scoffed at my logic. It’s been a good match; Stevie is strong enough to stand up to the best when it’s necessary, and he knows Tiger is the show. You won’t see Steve trying to grab the limelight, only doing his job on the other side of the bag. There’s a few things that don’t last long in life: pros putting for pars; dogs chasing cars; and caddies who think they’re stars. Steve has filled up his pockets and passed some of the greats on the all time money list.

We used to play a lot of golf together, have a cold one once in awhile, but we’ve gone out seperate ways these days. There were a lot of late groups on Sunday afternoons with Raymond and Stevie; I loved to watch them work together. If Steve thought he was right, he wouldn’t back down, and he always had a good arguement for his club choice. He’d stand there, refuse to budge, but if Raymond wasn’t convinced and wouldn’t follow his advice, Stevie made sure Raymond was prepared for the shot. He was competitive and it showed.

That first Bay Hill in 1999 they finished way back in the pack, 56th or so, and I talked to Steve the next week. Just a casual conversation about the week; he didn’t have much to say, shrugged his shoulders and said, “It was alright.” He never liked talking about golf or himself.

“Come on Stevie, you can give me more than that,” I begged. “What was it like clubbing him?” I asked.

“Well, we had a flier from about 195. He liked nine, I new it was pitching wedge, but I couldn’t spit it out. The nine iron flew the green,” he said.

Stevie grinned and knew he had the best caddying job known to loopers. He’s made the best of it and avoided the accolades as much as possible. At a tournament you’ll find him in the shadows waiting for Tiger and the days work in front of him. He tries to avoid the press and just go about his job.

I went to work for Raymond late in 1999 after Murph went into semi-retirement and called Stevie for some advice. He quoted Raymond’s daily schedule verbatim and let me in on a few of his idiosyncrasies. Right then I knew why Steve was such a good caddy; he took care of the little things and was always right there when the pressure was greatest. He never backed down or refused to do the behind the scenes responsilities that border on servitude.

Our first week together I asked Raymond, “Does this mean my next job will be Tiger?”

Raymond snapped, “You just worry about this frickin’ job first?

He told me they were together for ten years and he only remembered one bad number all those years. It was at Kemper Lakes in Chicago and I just happened to be in the group. After his ball airmailed the green Raymond asked Steve, “Was that number right?”

Steve double-checked his book, owned up to the mistake, apologized, and went about his business. No nonsense and Raymond got it up an down from an impossible lie. Walking to the next tee they were laughing and I remember Raymond saying, “He’s kept me from screwing up many times, I figured I needed to cover his ass this once.”

That’s the sign of a great caddy-player relationship. Steve has definitely carried it on to the next level; he’s been good for Tiger, and Steve’s bankers feel Tiger has been good for him.