Tiger Woods / Ralph Ellis / 04 March 2010 / Leave a Comment

Tiger's long term caddy tells New Zealand television that he had no idea that his boss was up to no good

There were two big surprises about Tiger Woods. One was that he was living this other, astonishing, secret life. But even bigger was it seemed that nobody knew about it.

It's a sign of how Tiger distanced himself from the rest of the professional golf circuit that he could have a string of affairs, hang around cocktail waitresses, and generally get up to all sorts of stuff and word never got out. Yes, after the infamous night of the Thanksgiving car crash there were one or two people claiming to have heard rumours. But they never mentioned them before that and anybody can be wise after the event.

Now comes the claim from the guy who should have been closest to Tiger, his caddie Steve Williams, that he also knew nothing of what was going on. Williams has carried Woods' bag since 1999, and although he's never revealed the financial terms of their partnership on the basis that caddies usually collect ten per cent of winnings he'd have made more than seven million dollars in that time. He's so close to Woods both spiritually and professionally that the two of them proposed to their respective wives Kirsty and Elin within months of each other. The two girls are close friends as well.

"If I'd known something was going on, the whistle would have been blown," Williams has insisted in an emotional television interview back in his native New Zealand.

"Of course I'm mad at him (Tiger). If the shoe was on somebody else's foot I would say the same thing, that it would be difficult not to know, but I'm telling you 100 per cent I knew nothing."

Do we believe him? Well, probably. Given that Tiger is obsessive about everything else in his life it's fair to assume he put the same perfectionism into the task of keeping his other life secret, until it all came tumbling down.

So if we believe that, then here's another thing even more worth listening too. Williams says he doesn't know when Woods will return to the golf course, but he says he will do, and he thinks that when he does it will be back to his best.

Now there are already rumours that Tiger is home again after more rehab, that he's practising for his return, and that it will be later this month at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. If that's the case it won't be too late for him to play at Augusta, and in the other Majors still top come in 2010.

Just before Woods made his big, set-piece public statement I said to lay him for No Majors in Betfair's Tiger Specials market at [1.98]. The price ranges from [1.54] to [1.75] now, so that's not looking so clever. But actually it's an opportunity to go back for a bit more. I still think he will return sooner rather than later, and that when he does the obsession for winning shown by both golfer and caddie will burn brighter than ever. He'll only need to get in contention at one Major to turn the market green and make a healthy profit.

Five things you might not know about Steve Williams the caddie

Born in Wellington in 1963, he was playing golf with a handicap of two when he was 13, and he then captained New Zealand's Under 15 rugby team

He regularly skipped school, worked in a butcher's shop and sold mushrooms by the roadside to save up the money to leave home at 15 and go to Australia to pursue his ambition of becoming a professional caddie

He lied about his age to Greg Norman - claiming to be 20 when he was still 16 - to get his first big break carrying the bags of the The Shark!

He races saloon cars, driving a Mustang - he was the New Zealand national champion in 2006. That was a year after a racing accident left him without feeling in parts of his left hand

A perfectionist, he takes nine hours to mow the four-acre garden at his home in Kumeu near Auckland because he insists on using a push mower to get good stripes

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