‘Tiger’s lost his intimidation factor’

Ex-caddy believes Woods no longer poses the same threat.

SYDNEY: Outspoken caddy Steve Williams says former employer Tiger Woods has lost his intimidation factor, as the New Zealander revealed he will quit full-time golf this year.

Williams, who was sacked by Woods in 2011 after helping him win all but one of his 14 major titles, added that he had yet to reconcile with the world number one, but hopes to one day.

“There are just personal things and differences of opinion about how things went down. He thinks one thing and I think another,” said Williams.

“I need to sort that out with him. But I haven’t had the opportunity sit down with him and iron out a few things, but it will happen at some stage.”

Williams was fired after Woods’ slide down the world rankings following the revelation that the American had a string of extra-marital affairs.

Since then, Woods has failed to win another major and Williams said it was because the intimidation factor had gone.“He doesn’t have the intimidation factor anymore. That was a big thing, guys were quite intimidated by him but there is no intimidation anymore. That counts for a lot,” he said.

Williams switched to Scott after his dismissal, and has helped transform him into a major champion and the heir apparent to Woods’s world number one ranking.

But after a career that has also seen him caddy for Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd, Williams said it was time to slow down.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2014.

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