Steve Williams enjoyed plenty of success on the PGA Tour whilst working as caddie to Tiger Woods, however, their relationship ended sourly after 12 years together

Tiger Woods’ former caddie Steve Williams has opened up on the troubled ending to the pair’s famous relationship.

Williams worked alongside Woods during the prime of his career on the PGA Tour, as the pair joined forces in 1999, before eventually parting ways in 2011. Woods dominated men’s professional golf in that period, winning 13 of his 15 major championships, including five Masters titles.

Despite their period of success, Woods opted to sack Williams after he worked with Adam Scott whilst the 82-time PGA Tour winner was taking a break away from competing due to an injury problem.

It also came whilst Woods’ personal life saw him embroiled in scandal, as his extramarital affairs were revealed, thus leading to the end of his marriage with Elin Nordegren. “Looking back, I regret that a little bit but I knew following his return from the extended break, after the scandal, it just wasn’t the same as before,” Williams told the Daily Mail about the brutal end to their working relationship.

In the aftermath of their split, Williams found himself at the center of controversy. Having guided Scott to a PGA Tour victory in 2011 on the back of being fired by Woods, the New Zealander described the win alongside the Australian as the “greatest” of his career, despite all of his past major success.

He was later asked why he made the comments at an awards dinner that same year, to which he replied: “I wanted to shove it up his black a–.” In the aftermath, Woods played down any intentions of racism from his former colleague, but Williams still regrets his comments to this day.

“It was deeply wrong and I’m still apologetic,” the 61-year-old added. Amid their success, it appeared Wiliams’ relationship with Woods was often fiery. The 15-time major champion winner infamously won the 2008 U.S. Open with a fractured leg and torn knee ligament, a week that also included a brutal exchange between Woods and his caddie.

“I remember our 10th hole on the Friday. Tiger was hitting off a cart path and I could actually hear this bone-on-bone noise from his leg. Sickening,” he said of the event at Torrey Pines. “I said to him, ‘Perhaps it’s time to give it away here’. And he told me to f-off, that he was winning this tournament, and ‘I don’t give a s— what you think’. Hey, he won.”

Whilst Williams and Woods have not spoken for some time, there appears to be no bad blood between the pair. I don’t have any contact with Tiger,” the caddie added. “The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago at a tournament and we bumped into each other in the hotel. We had a good laugh. Look, there’s no hard feelings – it just goes this way with players and caddies. “