Douglas Lowe reports that you can wager on Stevie's fate:

You can already get 8-1 on the splitting of golf's most famous two-man team prior to the first PGA Tour event that Woods will play in, while Mickelson has spoken out saying how lucky he feels he is in comparison to have a class act in Jim Bones' Mackay as his caddie and representative.

James Corrigan makes several points in his Independent story analyzing Wednesday's Tiger Woods press conference possibilities, including this about Mickelson and a long rumored joke Corrigan's attributing to the "Woods camp":

This part of the attack plainly touched a nerve and that may just be because it reminded of another cruel joke supposedly circulated by members in or around Tiger's entourage. I certainly first heard it off a person with close connections to the Woods camp. "What's the difference between Phil Mickelson and his wife Amy?" went the wisecrack. "One has fake tits and a real smile..."

Of course, all of this playground silliness was blessedly rooted in the past, but now it promises to blight the present and in particular Woods's comeback from his knee reconstruction (which will reportedly occur some time around March). If Woods stands by his man as his own statement signifies he will – while calling Williams's remarks "inappropriate" and saying he "respected" Mickelson, he also said that the matter had been "discussed and dealt with" – then the atmosphere is bound to be tense and go way, way beyond that if and when the pair are required to play with each other.

What does already seem a given is that Woods will have to employ another caddie for this year's Presidents Cup in Los Angeles and possible even for 2010's Ryder Cup in Newport. No captain worthy of his team's camaraderie would want Mickelson and Williams in the same room and only a very weak captain would countenance it. The bristling enmity between Woods and Mickelson was long credited as being one of the factors for the American's desultory performances in the Ryder Cup, but since the Kentucky glory in September much has been made of the new-found Starred and Striped bonhomie. Has this been threatened already?

And Freddie thought being Captain (in San Francisco, not Los Angeles) would be a breeze!

Woods has long been depicted as the ultimate individual sportsman who does not care for the feelings of his rivals. But now golf is demanding that he must. Williams's biggest crime could well be in forcing Tiger to be reverential to Leftie. If Woods doesn't – starting today – then the feud, mythical or not, truly will be blown out of all proportion.

Lawrence Donegan writes on the Guardian blog:

For those inclined to disagree consider this: what if Pat Rice, Arsène Wenger's admirable assistant at Arsenal, was a guest speaker at a charity event and called Sir Alex Ferguson a prick? What if he then made Ferguson the butt of an anecdote which subsequently turned out to be fiction? Would that be newsworthy? Of course it would.

Uh, right, Pat Rice. Oh and Arsenio Wanker and Sir, wait, who? Sorry...I'm sure it's a fine point if you think it's nice to swim in the North Sea and believe black pudding is a delicacy.

This point I understand:

If that sounds too apocalyptic, then ask yourself this: what would have happened if Mickelson's caddie, or any caddie working for a leading professional, had publicly insulted Woods in the same manner? The answer, of course, is the caddie would have been fired on the spot.

I enjoy Mark Reason's work but I just don't get where he sees Stevie as a victim here. If you follow the course of the events and read Greg Ford's article, Williams did not back down from his comments or in any way express remorse for possibly telling a lie. Instead, he repeated the lie with a new spin.

Williams had assumed his remarks were made to a small, private audience.

Woods may be more sympathetic than most because in 1997 he told a magazine reporter some dodgy jokes off mike, only to see them appear in print.

Woods will understand that to some extent Williams is a victim, even if not too many other players and caddies will be crying about his plight.

The biggest fall-out from this story is that the world will once more become a duller place. Padraig Harrington says that he has nothing in common with Sergio Garcia and that is turned into an admission of sulphuric hatred.

A baggage handler makes a few choice comments on the other side of the world and suddenly we have an international incident. This is celebrity bonkers.

Sportsmen already say very little worth hearing. Soon they will say nothing. Who can blame them when private remarks become a matter of public gossip.

Wow, poor Stevie.

Meanwhile, Garry Smits notes that Stevie made another comment that has gone unnoticed, but which may upset Tiger more than the Phil comment.

In the first story in the New Zealand media in which Steve Williams, Tiger Woods' caddie, took several shots at Phil Mickelson, Williams had this to say about the final hole of regulation in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines:

On the 18th hole in the final round, [Woods] needed a birdie four to tie Rocco Mediate and force a playoff.
"He hit a crap tee shot, [Williams said], then a bad second into the rough with the pin located front right. He hit the shot I wanted him to hit ... he took some convincing ... hit it right and made the putt. What a feat that was."

Just a word of caution to Mr. Williams: Mike "Fluff" Cowan, Woods' first caddie on the PGA Tour, was supposedly fired for taking too much credit for Woods' play and being too chatty with the media.

In a statement, Woods said the matter had been "dealt with." We'll see. 

We shall see. 1 p.m. PST.

Update on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 06:56 AM by Geoff

** Lorne Rubenstein defends Williams without breaking out the violin and making him a victim, as Reason did above, while essentially making the same point: it's incidents like this that make athletes and the people who carry their luggage just a little less willing to say anything at all.

Williams was saying something he truly felt. That could be the last time he'll say anything interesting during a public event. That's too bad, because, evidently, he has a lot to say.

Here's to the unguarded, unscripted moment, then. There lies truth. Williams let Woods down, but he was telling it as it is for him, and that was telling. It was Williams, unvarnished. From now on, you can be sure of what you'll get: whitewash, and no colour.