Williams hits back at Woods

Tiger Woods has always demanded loyalty from employees and associates as a prerequisite for continued employment or association. His caddie, Steve Williams, was always the embodiment of the loyal employee, going to whatever lengths he deemed necessary to protect Woods on the golf course and off it. And after Woods publicly announced the firing of Williams, his longtime friend and confidant, on his website, using the usual corporate niceties to put some positive spin on it, he might be wondering what happened to the nondisparagement clause in Williams’ contract. This is quickly taking on the makings of a very ugly divorce. Unhappy with the break-up, Williams fired back at Woods. On his personal website, after weeks of denying firing rumours, Williams confirmed that Woods had let him go after the AT&T National tournament three weeks ago at Aronimink. Then he wrote, “After 13 years of loyal service needless to say this came as a shock. Given the circumstances of the past 18 months working through Tiger’s scandal, a new coach and with it a major swing change and Tiger battling through injuries I am very disappointed to end our very successful partnership at this time.” This rhetoric may have started Woods wondering if the lawyers left the nondisclosure part out of the standard player-caddie contract, if there was a contract. “You know, when I write my book, it’ll be the time I decide what I write,” Williams said. “It’ll just be one of those interesting chapters in the book.” He is not talking about a yardage book or a record book, either. Woods might have been able to obviate some of this had he learned one other thing about Jack Nicklaus, whose major-championship victory record of 18 is still four ahead of Woods. He could have asked him how to fire a famous caddie. Many years ago, in a different era (the 1980s), Nicklaus decided to end his relationship with his longtime caddie, Angelo Argea, after 18 years. The silver-haired Argea was aggrieved that Nicklaus did not give him what he considered to be a suitable sendoff. The situations are not precisely parallel, mainly because Argea was not nearly as skilled as Williams at the caddie’s basic duties. He never tried to talk Nicklaus out of a strategic decision nor into switching his club choice. Neither had Nicklaus been embroiled in any scandals that might have given Argea ammunition for vague threats about an upcoming exposé. But one thing that was similarly handled was the way Argea made his grievances public. He picked up a phone and called a golf writer in Miami to reveal that Nicklaus had fired him and had offered him a job picking up range balls at a North Palm Beach golf course — at minimum wage. The reporter tried to contact Nicklaus, but to no avail. But the next day, Nicklaus politely set the record straight on the disparities between what Argea had claimed and what actually had happened. The whole thing was largely forgotten in a couple of weeks. There was a brief flurry of publicity, which promptly subsided. Hopefully, that is probably what will happen with the latest high-profile caddie-player saga.