Veteran Kiwi caddie told to stand down for final major
In a bid to shake up his lacklustre season, Adam Scott will rest caddie Steve Williams from a major championship for the first time in more than two years.
World No 17 Scott confirmed he will use his part-time bagman David Clark at next week’s US PGA Championship and this week’s World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational tournament in Ohio.
New Zealander Williams - who was on the bag for 13 of Tiger Woods’ 14 major titles before helping Scott to his breakthrough 2013 Masters victory and his ascension to world No 1 in 2014 - hasn’t missed a major with the Australian since the 2015 Masters.
That absence from Augusta was due to Williams’ retirement before Gold Coast native Scott lured him back part-time for only the biggest tournaments on his schedule.
The PGA Championship, starting August 7 at Quail Hollow, will be just the second time that the 53-year-old Williams hasn’t carried Scott’s clubs at one of the four big dances since the 2011 US Open.
‘‘Clarkey is caddieing next week. He hasn’t caddied for me for 15 weeks so he needed to come out here,’’ Scott told AAP.
‘‘He’s only caddied five times for me this year. It’s very difficult; you have to balance two caddies.’’
The 37-year-old Scott is winless since February 2016 and currently sits 70th on the US PGA Tour’s season-long FedEx Cup race.
Given Scott plans to skip the first two FedEx playoff events to be with wife Marie as she gives birth to the couple’s second child due August 19, he risks falling out of the top 70 which progress to the third playoffs tournament, the BMW Championship.
‘‘I’ll have to play exceptionally well the next two weeks to make it to the BMW,’’ said Scott, who won the WGC-Bridgestone in 2011.
‘‘These are two big weeks; a WGC event and a major. It would go a long way towards feeling good about the year.
‘‘There has been a lot of average golf; it’s frustrating because I haven’t been able to put it all together.’’
Given Williams only came out of retirement to help Scott at the majors, the veteran caddie may decide to call it quits with Scott’s change of heart.
There are some high-profile golfers with the caddie vacancy sign up at the moment.
Irishman Rory McIlroy split with long-time caddie JP Fitzgerald this week while American lefthander Phil Mickelson and Jim ‘Bones’ Mckay ended their 25-year partnership before the British Open.
However, with Williams only wanting to work part-time there is little chance he would be tempted to sign on with anyone else, even if they wanted him which Mickelson certainly wouldn't given their chequered history.
"There has been a lot of average golf; it's frustrating because I haven't been able to put it all together." Adam Scott