“I don’t know if time heals, but when you step away from the Tour and sort of reflect on things, I felt it was time,” Steve Williams said, recalling the moment he decided to put his past acrimony with Tiger Woods to rest. The two had a falling out in 2011 when Woods changed his mind about letting Williams caddie for Adam Scott while Woods was recovering from an injury, leading to years of tension between them.

Speaking on the latest episode of Don Harvey’s YouTube, Williams revealed that exact pivotal moment in his career that ultimately led to his departure from caddying for Tiger Woods. It was 2011, and Williams had traveled to the US Open, expecting to caddy for Woods. However, upon arrival, he discovered that Woods wouldn’t be competing due to injury. In a surprising turn of events, Adam Scott asked Williams to caddy for him instead. As Williams recalled, “I’d left here on the Saturday under the intention that he [Tiger Woods] was playing in the tournament… and upon arriving there [Los Angeles], I find out he’s not playing in the tournament.”

Williams agreed to caddy for Scott, but things took a complicated turn when Woods’ manager called, expressing Woods’ preference that Williams not caddy for Scott. Despite his initial hesitation, Williams had already committed to Scott and felt obligated to honor that commitment. As he reflected, “I told him [Tiger Woods] yes, and I didn’t… Mark [his friend] sort of said, ‘Well, you know, it might mark the end of the road for you.’”

Looking back, Williams acknowledges that this decision likely marked the end of his tenure as Woods’ caddy. His wife had advised him against caddying for Scott, and Williams now realizes that listening to her intuition might have altered the course of his career. As he candidly admitted, “My wife said, ‘No, if Tiger doesn’t want you to caddy, you shouldn’t caddy,’ and I should have listened… Arguably, I’d probably still be caddying for him to this day.”

Steve Williams praises Tiger Woods’s determination