Tiger Woods was a tough guy in his prime.
Golf Digest caught up with Woods' former caddie, Steve Williams and asked about their 13-year, player-caddie relationship, in which Williams was alongside Woods for 13 of his 14 majors victories.
Williams, the semi-retired caddie who will travel with Adam Scott this summer, told Golf Digest he still is "disappointed" with the way his Tiger Woods let him go in 2011. But he still took a stroll down memory lane and shared some stories about Tiger.
The most chilling and yet best evidence of Tiger's dominance before his 2009 downfall was Williams' recollection of the 2008 U.S. Open. Williams recalled the sounds of the bones in Woods' leg grinding against each other as he dueled with Rocco Mediate.
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"When the USGA announced the 2008 U.S. Open would be at Torrey Pines, Tiger became obsessed," Williams said. "Every time we played there in the years leading up to it, he would talk about where the pins would be, what they might do to the fairways, everything. His desire to win the Masters and the Open Championship was nothing compared to how he felt about the U.S. Open."
That statement in itself could be considered surprising, considering to that point, he had won four Masters, the tournament which announced his arrival in 1997 as the world's best golfer for the next decade.
Woods had won "only" two U.S. Opens, but one was a 15-stroke victory in 2000 over Ernie Els. So perhaps the obsession with Torrey Pines and the fact that his U.S. Open victories were the fewest among his majors led him to do the unthinkable in 2008.
"Then he broke his leg," Williams said. "When Tiger played nine-hole practice rounds for that U.S. Open, I thought there was no way he could go. The leg was killing him. But he played, collapsing when he got back to the hotel each day. On the course, the sickening click of bones rubbing together as he walked made me queasy. The groans and squeaks he made were unreal. It's the most heroic thing I've ever seen in golf."
Woods beat Mediate on the first playoff hole of the 2008 to secure is 14th - and so far final - major victory.
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