Day lures Williams out of retirement to caddie
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Jason Day has won a major, reached No. 1 in the world and recorded 12 PGA Tour wins already in his career.
That’s not nearly enough to satisfy Day, the Westerville resident who believes he has “severely underachieved” and needed to make a change if he wants to achieve his goal of winning all four majors.
So after months of contemplating a caddie change, Day persuaded Steve Williams to come out of retirement to carry his bag, starting with the U.S. Open.
“I think I’ve underachieved up until now,” Day said Tuesday. “I feel like I’ve got a game that when it’s on, I can win most tournaments. And the big thing for me is to go ahead and believe that and have trust in my abilities that I can do that. And now that I have Steve on the bag, I think hopefully that will flourish and I can make winning more of a habit.”
Williams was the caddie for 13 of Tiger Woods’ 15 major championships, helped Adam Scott win the Masters in 2013, and has also worked for Greg Norman and Ian Baker-finch during a long career.
Williams last caddied regularly for Scott in 2017 and has been mostly retired since then but decided to come back because he believed in Day’s potential.
Bad memories
Pebble Beach has been a special place for Dustin Johnson ever since he played his first PGA Tour event here in 2008.
Johnson won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am in 2009-10, posted three other top-three finishes in that event and played an almost impeccable first three rounds the last time the U.S. Open came here in 2010.
But after taking a three-stroke lead into the final round, Johnson had a meltdown, starting when he missed the second green from the fairway with a wedge. He had to hit an awkward left-handed shot and ended up with a triple bogey. He dropped three more shots over the next two holes and finished with an 82.
“I played a great round on Saturday,” Johnson said when asked his memories from that tournament. “I remember the golf course, I felt like the setup was fantastic. It played really firm and fast. It was a good week. I played really well. First time having a lead in a major, got off to a fairly good start. I hit two shots on the green on 1, made a nice two-putt. And hit it right down the middle on 2, had a wedge in. And it went downhill from there.”