Steve Williams

Steve Williams (born 29 December 1963) is a New Zealander who has served as a caddie for several top professional golfers, most recently with Jason Day. Williams is best known for having served as Tiger Woods' caddie from 1999 to 2011. Woods was the top-ranked golfer in the world for much of Williams' tenure as his caddie. Career Williams was born in Wellington. He began his career of caddying at his home club at age 6. By age 10, he was frequently caddying 36 holes on Saturday and Sunday and then practicing his golf game until dark, becoming a two-handicap by age 13. However, as he reports on his official site, "by the age of thirteen I found myself enjoying caddying more than playing." He received his first break as a caddie in 1976, when his father arranged for him to carry the bags of Australian great Peter Thomson in the New Zealand Open. Thomson, who finished third, was impressed with the young Williams, who became his regular caddie when he played in New Zealand. The teenaged Williams also traveled to Australia on school breaks to caddie in tournaments there. In 1979, before he turned 16, he left school and moved to Europe to become a caddie on the European Tour. Williams spent much of the next decade caddying on almost all of the world's major professional tours. He got steady work with several Australian pros, among them Ian Baker-Finch. During this time, he met Greg Norman, and in 1982 became Norman's regular caddie in all his events in Asia and Australia, as well as some European events. In 1988, Williams moved to the United States to become Norman's full-time caddie. However, Norman fired him in 1989. Williams said later that he had gotten too close personally to Norman. Nonetheless, the two remained good friends. Norman later said he had made a mistake and tried to rehire him several years later. Williams had not long stayed unemployed, as Raymond Floyd hired him shortly after Norman fired him. He continued to carry Floyd's bag on both the regular and senior U.S. tours until 1999.