Tiger's Caddie Slams Mickelson
In recent years, the stories about the allegedly strained relationship between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson had died down a bit, replaced by stories about the allegedly warming relationship between Woods and Mickelson. A thaw borne of epic ping-ping matches during the Ryder Cup.
Back to square one.
Woods' caddie, Steve Williams, speaking at what he later claimed he thought was a private (or at least off-the-record) event in New Zealand, said of Mickelson, ""I wouldn't call Mickelson a great player, because I hate the -----."
What was the word Williams used? Well, it rhymes with "click" and does not start with a "d."
Way to go Steve. Just a couple days before your boss, Tiger Woods - who is, by all accounts, a classy guy - gets his Chevron World Challenge teed off with a press conference, you have to go and reignite this silly storyline about the Woods-Mickelson relationship. Now Woods will be pestered all week with questions about Mickelson, and with questions about what Williams said about Mickelson.
Methinks Tiger will not be happy about this. Williams might be a wee bit worried now. While Woods and Williams are considered close friends, Woods has fired a caddie in the past, and there were rumors a while back that Woods might replace Williams.
Williams said a few other things about Mickelson, too, including, "I don't particularly like the guy. He pays me no respect at all and hence I don't pay him any respect."
I have one word for you, Stevie: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!
For his part, Mickelson replied with a statement: "After seeing Steve Williams' comments all I could think of was how lucky I am to have a class act like 'Bones' (Mickelson's longtime caddie Jim Mackay) on my bag and representing me."
Granted, Mickelson - while wildly popular with golf fans - is not very popular among the PGA Tour membership at large. Whether that's justified or not, he doesn't deserve public namecalling from a caddie. Especially when that caddie's boss would never make similar statements himself.
See also:
- Mickelson responds to Williams' comments (espn.com)
Update: Tiger Woods issued a brief statement today: "I was disappointed to read the comments attributed to Steve Williams about Phil Mickelson, a player that I respect. It was inappropriate. The matter has been discussed and dealt with."
Comments
It just shows how route some people can be.He figures he’s with the number one player and say anything he wants.maybe he’s try to become a star like his boss.
This is really something that didn’t look like happening in Mr Woods’ part of the world but I guess the entire season away from Tiger’s bag is catching up with Steve Williams. But I am glad that he didn’t go out there and backtrack; the closest thing to an excuse out there was that he said it was what he thought was an off the record conversation.
I was even more surprised to see both Phil and Tiger coming out with statements. It obviously shows that there is a lot of hurt there and he does not intend to take this lying low and at the same time Tiger has also very interestingly ‘expressed disappointment’ over the entire episode. I guess it is the silly season and people really have nothing better to do than blow up these silly stories and give it as much space as possible to get tongues wagging. But yeah, one thing is for sure, with a press conference just a couple of days away it is going to be the main bone of contention in that meet and that is one thing that Tiger will definitely not appreciate.
See you at the 19th.
Cheers
Andy
GolfSwingSecretsRevealed.com
.. Whats new…?
Let’s be honest …
There’s not much love lost between Phil and Steve .. and when you think about it, there’s not much love lost between Phil and half of the PGA - Steve was just being honest — and Tiger (as usual) being the great statesman he is (and the #1 player on the planet) thought he would quiet the situation (as seen on the golf channel) answering only 1 question with only 1 reporter and putting it to bed ….
And for all of those bad words by Steve..? — he’ll get a new Porsche for Christmas and a pay raise for the 2009 season.. as it should be.
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