Tiger Woods defended his former caddie Steve Williams yesterday, saying he was not a racist and that he had apologized for a “hurtful” slur that triggered widespread condemnation last week.
Williams, who was Woods’ caddie for 13 of his 14 major titles before being sacked earlier this year, referred to the former world No. 1 as a “black arsehole” during an awards dinner on Friday night in Shanghai.
The pair came face to face at the Lakes course in Sydney yesterday ahead of this week’s Australian Open, where Williams is now carrying the clubs of Australian world No. 8 Adam Scott.
Photo: EPA
Woods, 35, who has not won a tournament in two years — precipitating a slump in his world ranking to 58 — said that the pair shook hands and agreed to move on.
“We talked this morning, we met face to face and talked it through,” Woods told a press conference. “Obviously, it was a wrong thing to say, something that we both acknowledged now and we’re moving forward. He did apologize. It was hurtful, certainly, but life goes forward.”
“No, Stevie’s certainly not a racist, there’s no doubt about that. I think it was a comment that shouldn’t have been made and certainly one that he wished he didn’t make,” he said.
Despite outrage over Williams’ remarks, Scott has refused to fire the New Zealander at this week’s event.
Greg Norman, also competing in Sydney, defended the caddie and said there was no racism in golf, while tournament chiefs said no action would be taken, but Woods’ friend, Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples, has said he would have sacked Williams as his caddie over his remarks.
Williams, 47, posted an online statement on Saturday apologizing to Woods and admitting his comments “could be construed as racist,” but the USPGA and European Tours have declared the matter closed.
Woods said it had been a tough decision to split with Williams.
“For me, personally, it was a tough decision to make to go in a different direction in my professional life, but as far as personally, I don’t know how it [the comment] happened, but it did. Here we are, so life goes forward,” Woods said. “This summer, I wanted to go in a different direction. I wasn’t playing, I was injured and I was trying to come back, but I missed most of the major championships and he [Williams] didn’t want to miss them, which was understandable. I wish I could have played in them too.”
He said Williams was currently in a good position.
“He’s got a great bag [caddying] and Adam’s playing well. He’s got just a load of talent, so he’s in a good spot,” Woods said. “We’ll see what time does, we know that time does heal wounds and we’ll see how it goes. We shook hands.”
Woods said it was up to the golfing authorities to look at any sanctioning of players, officials and caddies over their conduct away from the course.
“I don’t make the policies. I’m not part of the governing bodies, that’s up to them,” the former world No. 1 said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier