Steve Williams, Tiger’s caddie and said to be New Zealand’s richest “sportsman” features in a 3-disc DVD collection. “Tiger-The Authorised DVD Collection”.

Last weekend I saw it on the shelves of my local DVD rental shop and hired it.
It’s a bit dated because it doesn’t include Tiger’s most recent wins in the Majors.
However there is coverage of Tiger’s historic win at Pebble Beach-2000 US Open, won by a record-breaking 15 shots.

Tiger sets the scene by saying he’d won the Centennial US Amateur and his eyes were on winning the Centennial US Open.
Tiger shoots a 65 in the first round-An usually fast start for him.
Come the second round, there’s a rain delay. And Tiger has to return to the course the next day to play the final few holes.

The story of Steve’s tough call goes something like this.
On the evening of the the rain delay, Tiger took three balls from his bag to practice putting in his room, and left them there.

During his warm-up session, Tiger also gave away two balls to spectators. However Steve had a couple in his pocket-No worries mate!-Yeah right!

The video commentator doesn’t say which hole but it looks like the tee at the famous 18th hole with the water on the left.
Tiger plays an awful tee shot and his ball ends up in the tide.
This is followed by a rather assertive, expletive-deleted, request for another ball.

Ugh ugh! Only one ball left in the bag and none in Steve’s pocket.
Steve suggests it might be a good idea to change from driver to 2-iron from the tee.
An understandable piece of advice given the situation. Keeping in mind that the rules of golf do not permit a golfer to borrow a ball should the second and last one meet a similar fate to the first.

Steve’s tough call.
Do you tell the boss that it’s the last ball “we” have in the bag?
Or just hope like hell the boss bangs one down the middle, which he did and went on and won the 2000 US Open.

Hope you enjoyed this wee story because it is stories like this, which makes golf such a fascinating game. And in this particular case an appreciation of the fact that there’s more to being a caddie than carrying a bag.

Stuff features an article by Liam Napier, “Kidnappers prize lures the best” You know what event he’s referring to.
No disrespect to Liam but geez the cliché-filled quotes from the golfers kinda confirms Brandel Chamblee’s
thoughts on “mute” pro golfers.

Now here’s a quotable quote and thought for the day.

“If I had only one more round to play, I would choose to play at Pebble Beach.”
– Jack Nicklaus

I know what my choice would be-And your choice is?

Slainte

Stan

PS
Quite co-incidentally, the guy behind the counter at the DVD store, who knows of my passion for golf, mentioned he’d seen Steve’s car drive past. And assumed Steve, or his wife, is back in town at the moment.
Steve mentioned on the video that if he’d got it wrong with the decision “we” made, he’d be back farming in NZ.
Looks like he has (deservedly) achieved the best of both worlds.