When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
If the pitchout rough in Canada isn't your think, Walton Heath is looking splendidly rustic in the bits of Senior Open Championship coverage I've seen. Unfortunately, no Peter Alliss appearances planned.In no particular order, let's remember some of Stevie Williams' finest moments as Tiger's bagman:
In 2008 Stevie went positively batty at a car race (tragically, the video has been removed...).
At the 2010 Players there were growing rumors of his dismissal.
He removed his Masters caddie hat and was reprimanded at the 2008 Masters.
Josyln James claimed to know Stevie.
Stevie dropped a nine-iron into a pond at the 2006 Ryder Cup. IMG put in a request to have the video removed from YouTube (why not from NBC?).
Stevie called Phil Mickelson a prick. And then Tiger had to apologize for him.
He took off his bib before Graeme McDowell had putted on the 18th green, 2010 Chevron World Challenge. And we know how that ended up.
Tiger suggested Stevie was giving him bad club selection advice.
Stevie announced that had he known about Tiger's other life, he would have blown the whistle.
Stevie questioned Tiger's decision to not play another event prior to the Masters.
And most egregious of all...Stevie posed for photos in a tank top with a pitchfork.
Robert Lusetich, who interviewed Steve Williams at length for his book on the Tiger scandal and who frequently has scored several Williams related exclusives, recounts the loyalty shown by Williams despite spousal pressures. But he also takes us through the build-up and ultimate cause of the highest profile breakup in player-caddy history: Tiger felt betrayed.
Kevin Cook files a nice remembrance of David Malcolm, author of Tom Morris of St. Andrews: The Colossus of Golf, who passed away June 4th.
Lorne Rubenstein isn't a fan of the Shaughnessey setup for this week's Canadian Open either (Leader held to -3! Insomniacs rejoice!), suggesting the rough cut in half would provide infinitely more interesting and equally testing golf.The former U.S. and British Amateur champion and winner on the PGA Tour also shot his age during the round, and did it all with an old Titleist Tour Distance ball he found in the rough a week before.
You have your choice of Thai Chinese or English versions.
An unbylined BBC story transcribes Steve Williams' Television New Zealand interview following his dismissal as Tiger's looper.
I always enjoy Farrell Evans' Q&A's at golf.com but when I get to add a modern day player to The List, why it's a special day. And when it's the most American of American's expressing such un-American, anti-something views, it's just a grand day!Sometimes blogging is traumatic and so upsetting that my keyboard is flooded with tears of raw emotion. This is not one of those nights!
Doug Ferguson on the break up of golf's sweet lovebirds, reveals that Tiger broke the news in a board room at Aronimink after the AT&T National final round and Stevie chose to keep quiet out of respect for his new client.
Most of the Euro Tour beat writers remain reluctant to question the long term future of Rory McIlroy in the Open Championship after he wrote it off Sunday, but as Karl MacGinty Brian Creighton reports several old geezers saw Rory McIlroy's comments about the Open and believe he needs to change his attitude. Nick Price was the toughest:
“He had better get out there and start liking those courses and figuring out a way to play them. And if he's a good enough player, he will do that.
“He may not like it as much but he will learn. I guarantee you, he will learn to play and enjoy it on links courses.”
Ian Woosnam was the most erudite. And I bet you never thought you'd see his name and that word in the same sentence!
“He's only a young kid. He's going to say the wrong thing again and again. He's probably thinking ‘What the hell have I said?'“ Woosnam commented on the US Open champion.
“But if he wants to win the Open he's going to have to adapt. Tiger has adapted, Nicklaus adapted. Palmer, they all adapted.
“He needs to adapt to it. It's not changing your game. It's changing the way you think. All you have to do is move the ball back a couple of inches in your stance and take a club or even two clubs more to play. It's called control.”
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
