The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: Dominique Ruins The Interview (feat. Steve Williams)

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

“Hand up, I’ve had a great year. That’s on me.” We’re taking personal responsibility for our failures…and our successes. That said, Steve Williams (author of ‘Together We Roar’ and Tiger Woods’ caddie) wants to be sure no one gets thrown under the bus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So on the Dominique Foxworth Show, Charlie and I, after each show, determine whether we won or lost. And sometimes later on in the day, immediately after the show, sometimes we're right, and then later on in the day we're like, hey, I think we took a loss. Or, like, hey, keep the streak alive. I say that to say, at the end of today's show, we're gonna have show awards, as we did last time I was here But we also need to determine whether we won game one or not because we got a five game series We got a five game series this week and we got to get out here with a dub And I'm so as I mentioned before I'm so happy to have Hawk hair game one

He's clutch. So does that mean if we win the first three games, we just don't work Thursday, Friday? Yeah. I mean, that's how a series work, baby. So bring your A game. That's with seven K and 18 of the NFL season, basically. How are we doing today so far? Are we up? I think we got a pretty good lead. It's a close ball game.

I think we blew the lead with Dominique's follow-ups to lose here. They weren't great. No. It was a bit of a turd quarter. I had a couple of turnovers, baby. I had a hot start, got full of myself, had a couple of a couple turnovers hand up another thing from the Dominique Fox serve show Accountability plays that's what we so went off you coach you take responsibility

Couple of errors. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we don't tell if it went off us We just take responsibility if it didn't go off us. I is not the norm here just take responsibility if it didn't go off us. Like I am. That is not the norm here. No? No. No. It's losing ball.

It's losing ball. This week it's the norm. We're gonna be accountable. Everybody's gonna be prepared. And if you're not, call it out. Charlie got in trouble yesterday because he took responsibility. I mean, not in trouble, but he took responsibility.

We had a ridiculous adventure to get here yesterday. It's a long day. I'll be accountable. I didn't quite fully understand what Pablo was trying It's a long day. I'll be accountable. I didn't quite fully understand what Pablo was trying to tell me through Charlie. I had no clue. But I did take the opportunity to find the funny out. Nice.

So I was bad and good. The one thing that I can always do. Did you just take accountability for being good? For being good. Accountability is accountability, no matter what side of the fence it's on. I thought I did really well with that. I like to point out that I stepped up to the plate

and I want to be the bigger person and let everyone know that that was the case. If this was whose line is it anyways, you would have been happy I'm on your team. Cause I could have been like, what are you, wait, one more time, slow that down. But nope, not me. Hand up, I rule.

I love the post-game press conference that's like, hey, he threw me down the ball in the corner, I was trapped in the bad spot press conference. That's like hey, he threw me to in the ball in the corner I was trapped in bad spot, but I got out of it I would like to take responsibility for how bad a spot Pablo put me in before I made that shot anyway I got another random question guys. I'm walking in here looking around and Who the hell is that who do I was to gods? That's not Stu Gots? That's not Stu Gots. Not with that clean line. No, no, no, that was a day that for Halloween he dressed up like Dan.

I don't believe you. You know who I think that is? I think that's Leroy. Yeah. That, that, not with that, that, you trying to tell me that that nose is a white man's nose? That's a good, that's a good question. That's Leroy, y'all.

Look at his traps. That's Leroy. Look at you ever since two gods with those traps. Yeah. Look at me Leroy. Well, this is from the coloring book. Do you think anyone was like, I don't know who this is. I'm just gonna guess on the skin color.

I have no clue how you can argue that that is not a black man who played baseball in the 70s. Right? Like as clearly a man who played baseball in the 70s. Right? Can we look up how many black guys in the MLB in the 70s were named Leroy? Cause I feel like there was a lot.

I feel like the name Leroy was probably at its height in the 70s for black men in America. The super athletes used to go to baseball, and that thing that kind of blows my mind to think about. We had this conversation before where there are lots of, like, incredible, outstanding, amazing, ridiculous athletes in sports that we've never really seen before. There was a time when baseball was what football is,

and all the super athletes were like, you know what I wanna do? I wanna play baseball. It was the thing, man. That's where the money was though. You gotta follow the money. Like Jackie Robinson could've probably been a Hall of Fame football player.

He was like one of the best in the country. So on this side, it's like, oh that's crazy, you chose baseball, like then no, that made all the sense in the world. Speaking of show awards, Andrew Hawkins got all the damn awards. This man is on all the lists. He was on, what was it, the Athletic,

New York Times, 50 under 40. Yep, yep, yep. And today announced another one. Did they actually give you a trophy for the SBJ one? I think there's a banquet that comes, and then you get it at the banquet. Don't say I think. I don't, I don't know.

Don't try, don't. Don't fake humble me. I promise I do not know. I didn't love how Mike just patted himself on the back. Now I do. Because it's better, just be real. Just be real with me. Hand up, I've had a great year.

I don't wanna get a look at me Leroy. That's on me. So it's better for you, I just, I don't know. I'll figure it out. If it doesn't come, I'm gonna make my own trophy. There's no sort of- Is there something wrong with that? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

There's no way out of the look at me Leroy. Because you pretending like you got this great honor and just like, I don't know, I get so many of them, I can't keep up. I got banquets, I got no banquets, some of them give me trophies, some of them don't. I'm just a man in this. I am very honored to be mentioned

with some incredible names. Name some of the names. That's some good accountability. In the sports business world. I haven't actually, I have not seen the list. Because you don't even care enough to look at the list. Oh my God. My man don't even look at the list. Let him be accountable. I'm working. I have not seen the list because you don't even care enough to look

Accountable I'm working I am locked in it came out today I got a text while I'm on this show that I'm on those I have not seen I have no idea who else is on the List that is so cool. It's just an honor to be not. I'm just honored to be Listed with all the obstacles that I've had to go through to get to this point, Mike, you understand. I do. At the buzzer at 39, come on, man. And sometimes it's weird to be honored, right? Because I actually put in all this sweat equity years ago and now this tree's all bearing fruit at the same time.

I come off way more impressive than I actually am right now in this moment. So kudos to them for still seeing through that lens, Mike. Four-seven seven gang you too Seven gang we doing it baby, so you gonna have to give a speech you says it banquet, so I don't know I have Me I literally have no idea how this works I got a question are you the type of guy that prepares a speech but pretends like it's not prepared The color are you who doesn't actually prepare speech or are you a guy who pulls a paper out of the pocket, unfold it, and hit him?

Or the phone. I'm not prepared to speech, and then about 40 minutes before I speak, it just comes to me. Gotcha. That's how I am. That's obnoxious. No, it's not.

It's when I do my best work against the clock, I get some funny in there, I find the energy of the place. Feel, okay, make sure this is relatable. Get the people going a little bit. Quick, short and sweet and get out. You're not a fan? Don't sit here, don't give me the awkward silence.

Don't give me, that's being a bad teammate. This is what you do? This is why you- No, no, no, I'm proud of you. I think you're an amazing talent I'm happy you're here. I am also much it does. He really does not as much as you know Mike No, he doesn't know he I mean if anybody it's a four seven game the force ever we're one of the same Apparently y'all do too much Four-seven game I just shut y'all asses up

Get there on time sit your goofy ass in the back for a second, seven gang. Only found one Leroy, first name Leroy, who's played in the seventies, his name is Leroy Stanton. He was a, he was a California angel and a Seattle Mariner. Does he have a beard and look just like that guy on the rim? No beard. What about the eighties? I didn't see any from the eighties.

So it's the leading decade for Leroy's, like I said. Most likely there will be Negro League players named Leroy. A lot of Negro League players. Was there any white Leroy's? Maybe that had last names, probably Leroy, probably, I'll look that up. That would probably be LaRoy. There's a country singer named Leroy Van Dyke. Oh. Did he do the voiceover? Self-shout out. Maybe that's why that pain came from. He knows what he's been through.

I um. There's not a lot of famous Leroy's on this website. Wow. I was um in the break. I was in uh the container and there was a fiery conversation. You guys mocked me earlier because I said that we got some hot Maryland talk coming and you mocked me. But guess what I walked into, into the shipping container. You guys, Charlie and specifically, having a fiery conversation about Maryland. So let's do it. I actually think this topic is fascinating.

We were talking about the NIL stuff and how there are changes to where the payments are coming from and how it's going to be a revs chair system. And this is a big story for you guys because Kevin Willard, the coach who just led Maryland to one of the strangest sweet 16 runs imaginable because they had the buzzer beater from Derek Queen, the crab five, they're this fun team. He was out. He was out like a week and a half before that. He started. It was also a travel.

Yeah. Yeah. Hater. It was started public. He was also on travel. Yep. Hater. It was a travel. He didn't call it. I'm at that age now where I can't watch any basketball games. I'm like, it's a travel. It wasn't a travel. It's a travel. It wasn't a travel.

It was beautiful. It's a carry. It's a travel. It's a terrible age. Yeah. It's a bad age. Where does it feel good? When we get to the Ted McMillan conversation,

I think I'm gonna join you at that terrible age. Anyway, Charlie, tell me why my school is bad. Your coach was publicly flirting with Villanova, has now taken the job to be the Villanova. So he's not my coach. He's no longer your coach. Your former coach had taken the job at Villanova. Just because Maryland is a Big Ten school, Villanova is in the Big East, Villanova is not going to spend NAL money on football.

There will be a higher percentage of their revenue share that goes to the basketball program, which sets up a really interesting thing of what's gonna happen with these ACC schools. Are they gonna choose football or basketball? Are they gonna be trying to get poached by the SEC or other conferences or the Big Ten? And Maryland's in a funny spot with this,

because this is a basketball school that is trying to now masquerade as a football school. Wow. They're not trying to mask. So the thing is, the stories pointed out that Maryland spends the second most money of anybody in the Big Ten in top 10 in the country on basketball. So the idea that Willard was arguing that Maryland

was shortchanging him, I think that if anyone had an argument that it was getting shortchanged, it would be the football team, right? I think that if anyone had an argument that it was getting shortchanged, it'd be the football team, right? I think you're on it, Dominique. I don't understand this. And plus there's more rev to share inside the Big 10. They got that big time football money coming into there.

So it's very curious. I'm sure he was made a ton of promises and Villanova's won national championships more recently, certainly than Maryland. And that's what they have going on for them. That school is synonymous with its men's basketball program. So I understand why he might get more commitments from that. There's also a little bit of an element to like,

let me reset that clock. And this whole new age of college basketball, I'd rather be starting fresh at Villanova and have that job security now that I just raise expectations here. But coaches like to do this thing where they complain about the resources and the resources are so ambiguous because they're kind of like closely guarded state secrets that you can just kind of conveniently use this as an excuse. No one really checks you on that like Jim Laranaga. There we go, I got it. I was confused why Mike Ryan was so into this Maryland time.

I did some of it on Friday, but we just let- I just had this conversation somewhere. Yeah, we did this on Friday, but we let Jim Laranaga and Leonard Hamilton join us in our content making. And we just, like, yeah, no, NIL Portal, we hear you. That must be difficult for someone of your age. And then no one realizes, like, he didn't lose anybody until they started sucking. Like, we had the most talented team ever after we went to the final four.

Yeah, we lost two guys to the NBA that weren't first round picks, and we replaced them with Matt Cleveland, a guy from FSU that Coach Larronega really wanted, and a first round draft pick that's one of the better rookies in the NBA right now, Kishon George. That was the most talented Miami team ever and they fell on their face and then the following year, we got him a top three recruit in the nation and he quit midway through the year. Hand up, I shouldn't have brought up this topic to talk about Miami basketball, I'm sorry.

Yeah, well this is why my Uber rating is low. And yeah, this right here. But we gave him a top three recruit. Tony Bennett did the same thing. And it's like, oh, well, you're just quitting. You're quitting. That's not accountability. Because the game's changing, and you're just like,

it's a mess. What you're saying is, no, I can't acclimate. I have a limited skill set. I'll get us back to Maryland. I have a stat of the day. Start of the day, start of the day, and this is the start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day. Yeah. Start of the day, start of the day, and this is the start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day, and this is the start of the day. Start of the day, start of the

day, and this is the start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day, and this is the start of the day. Way too long. That's the short version. Let me remind people that stat of the day is brought to you by Evan Williams, bourbon. Game day's number one pour. Evan Williams, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, Bardstown, Kentucky, 43 to 45% alcohol by volume, enjoy responsibly, 21 plus. We're talking about Kevin Willard, former Maryland coach, just headed off to Villanova.

This marks the first time that a Maryland head basketball coach has left for another school. Every other time in the program's 102 year history, their coach has either been fired or retired. Oh, that is a good stat. So did we fire Bear Bryant? No, no, no, no. I mean, we had to, right?

No. I think we did. Basketball, I think they're talking about. Oh, oh, so it's not all sports? No, just basketball. This program, odd program. Yeah. Gary Williams.

You're better for it. It is a great program, especially the leadership there at the program. Yeah Gary will you better for it? It is a great program especially the leadership there at the program and fantastic man. Okay, I Just think whatever they're doing with rev share. It's in good hands So if they've if they've made and I think it's probably more team they knew that this guy can't hang. Let's go get better, right? You know nobody's there just up straight down the middle is how I shoot it. That's how I end up on those lists, just so you guys know. The Kevin Wheeler stuff is interesting because he was not a crazy successful coach, but the opportunity came and he jumped ship. So I'm never gonna begrudge anybody for moving on to a different opportunity or to what they believe is a

better opportunity, but it was weird the way that he did it, I thought. Because, so first he's doing press conferences where he's leaking that the AD is going to leave, and he's kind of also taking shots at the institution for not paying for him and his team to stay in New York and celebrate Christmas together. And he's arguing that the rev share is not favorable when it actually appears the reporting suggests that the rev share is favorable for him then he skips a sweet 16 dinner with his team where he's supposed to go celebrate with them while they're on a run a sweet 16 obviously because he had some understanding with Villanova just as a weird way to go

about things but I guess at a certain point I more than anyone else shouldn't understand and know that college football or college sports is gross and getting grosser and All the standards that we used to pretend to hold ourselves to we don't even like pretend anymore And it's just scary for the future. It's always been gross though. When did it like get gross? I think I think we moved the veil I guess which I guess is better. We can see the gross. I kind of think that people started feeling outwardly that this is gross when the players got to do what the coaches got to do the entire time.

And then it kind of held up a different line. And then the coaches were like, hey, that's unfair. That's not cool that they can do that. We're supposed to be the only ones that get away with that. So how does that relate to Miami? I mean, it can if you want to read into it. Why did you ask him that?

Why would you ask that question to my 4.7 ganger? I would say that racism. Yes. I would say it all goes back to racism, because once the black teenagers started making millions of dollars and being able to say, hey, no, I want to go to your school. No, I actually want to go to this other school.

Why? For more money. Wait, you can't do that. We can do that. You can't do that. You're a black teenager. And I think that that's where it actually changed if we're getting down to the nitty gritty. Are you talking about the music group,

young black teenagers, or is that? That was actually mostly white kids. It wasn't DJ Scribble? I think they were all white kids. From the MTV Raps trading card I found at my mom's house. Tap the bottle, twist the cap. That's where Scribble was from. So I am very biased on the Maryland sports.

Obviously, Neek is biased. He's the most biased on this topic. But my cousin is the executive director of Rev Share and general manager of Maryland athletics. Did he get on the 40 under 50 under 40 list? He's over 40. He's an older cousin. just I gotta be honest and say I'm completely biased I have no idea what the situation is going on there But I'm in support of whatever he is doing and I feel like we should be able to talk more about our biases in in

Sports media. Yeah, we all have biases. We should be clear and outspoken about those biases, but We should be clear and outspoken about those biases. But am I the only one that's pointed out the racism though? Yes. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Give him a look at really. That's what he wants. I like how you play your audience too. I didn't feed into it because I'm like, all right, I like what you're doing.

4.7. I mean, you know, I don't read the room. He's a little. He's a little. But he's also biased, but he's talking about race. No, no, no, no, I'm not. I'm biased against the NCAA. No, no, no, I'm not I'm biased against the NCAA like no doubt no doubt I've been very public but I've always been anti NCAA because of my very valid persecution complex We're gonna take a break but before we do Andrew is your cousin does your cousin's name start with an A

This is gonna be This is gonna be even worse. Alright, real quick, this is a real quick story. My cousin's name is G-Roy, okay? But he's a junior. Huh? Okay, his name is G-Roy. He's a junior, G-Roy Junior. His father, who is G-Roy, has a twin brother.

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Jim Deshaies Doug Brokale We back and we are joined by an incredible guest, a legend, the legendary caddy, Steve Williams. He's here to promote his book, Together We Roar, alongside Tiger for his epic 12 year, 13 major run. It comes out on April 1st. Buy it as a gift for somebody coming up for whatever holiday you want. Steve, thank you so much for joining us, man. I'm excited to have you.

You're a legend. Well, thanks very much. It's nice to be on your show, guys. All right, so I wanna start with, we're gonna get to all the great golf stories that I'm sure you're in your book. You're not gonna give away all the best ones so people want to start with, we're going to get to all the great golf stories that I'm sure you're in your book, you're not going to give away all the best ones so people have to buy it, but I had a random question as I was thinking.

Normally, people who work in sports are great athletes themselves also. Did you grow up playing a sport other than golf? Yeah, I was a fanatical rugby player. I'm from New Zealand and rugby's our national sport. Everyone, when they're a kid growing up, he wants to be an All Black, and I was no different to that. Yeah, me too.

When I was growing up, all I wanted to be was black too, Stevie. So you are obviously a phenomenally tough guy. Any injuries from your rugby career or gruesome hits? No, no, no, no. Not, I think I might have lost a couple of teeth before it was mandatory to wear a mouth guard, but no, nothing too serious. I played rugby through my early college days and then obviously started caddying at a young age, but yeah, rugby's a big game here in New Zealand.

It's not sure if you know much about it. Oh yeah. a big game here in New Zealand. I'm not sure if you know much about it. But. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. No, we're well aware of rugby being a popular game in New Zealand. We steal some of your rugby athletes occasionally to come play our American football on occasion.

And I've played rugby with some friends. It's a very violent game, but it's also very fun. And it's pretty straightforward. Pure football. It is pure. It's like a pure version of American football is rugby. Agreed. So, all right, the book.

What in the book, why do you look at me like that? You're talking, I gotta look at the person talking. You said it's pure football, I was like, oh, Hawk's about to go somewhere with this. Oh, okay. Then he just looked back at me. No, no, no, I'm just a big rugby fan. All right, who in the tour right now could you beat?

Don't get scared. I know you watch golf and you look up and you're like, hey, I could beat some of these dudes. Name them. Name some names, Steve. No, how do you mean you can beat some of these dudes? Oh, I mean in golf. There's somebody on the tour you could beat. Oh, look, I mean, anybody that's good enough to get their PGA Tour card and play on any kind of professional circuit, for every player that's out there playing, trying to make a

living at golf, there's hundreds of other players that don't make it. It's a very competitive game to be at an elite level in golf. I don't think the average person would realize how much a player puts in and how much time goes into making it on the tour. They're all great players. You're a very tough rugby man and what you wanted me to ask is who on the tour ass could you beat? You could beat one of them up, right? You could somebody name one of them that you want to square up with and you could catch them because you're tougher than a golfer, right? You're tougher than all the golfers. Oh look, I guess I guess me and Phil Mickelson could probably square up one

Great answer. Yeah Yeah, I remember you called Phil a prick you want to see him in the streets? We can we'd arrange this we can get a little a little Netflix pay-per-view. Let's get this money Money book sales through the roof. Oh, yeah, the book sales are definitely through the roof come on so Tigers most recent injury I'm sure that all of us like we have accepted that Tiger is well past his prime the recent injuries are Concerning, what are the chances that we can see some another great run from Tiger, obviously not an extended run, but, uh,

another good tournament, another good major, anything from Tiger. What do you think? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I, I, my personal belief is that, you know, he won't give up the dream of trying to win another major championship until the time comes when he knows it's, it's not a possibility. So for him, in order for him to play in a major championship and the time comes when he knows it's not a possibility. So for him, in order for him to play in a major championship and be competitive, he needs to have his body in this, you know, allow his body to be healed to the

point where he can practice so that when he stands on the first tee of a major championship, he knows he's fully fit and he can play 72 holes without the ailment and then he can compete. So Tiger's an incredible competitor and I think he's proud of all the records he's got. I think he's one record he'd like to add to is winning a major championship at 50 years and older. Phil Mickelson's proven that you can do that. And there's been a number of other players that won majors late in their career. So, you know, Tiger's, I don't think he's given up the dream of doing that.

And, you know, until such point where he that dream is gone, where he believes he can't compete and win a major championship. I think he'll try and keep playing. So hopefully we haven't seen the last of Tiger. I mean, it would be a phenomenal story if he come back and get himself ready where he could play in a major championship Not only play but you know, give it a chance to win No at one point you and tiger were not didn't have the greatest relationship. It sounds as if you guys you feel

Better about that, but the real question is could you whip Tigers ass at one point? When I went to work with tiger, I considered myself to be reasonably fit and he gave me a whole different perspective of what being fit was. So, yeah, so, yeah, I got it. Yeah, he put me through some rigorous workouts.

And, you know, sometimes I had to say, look, I'm done now, Tiger. I'll meet you in the car when you're finished. Pretty strong, dude. Together we roar. You guys need to buy it, order it. It comes out on April 1st, 2025 alongside Tiger,

his epic 12 year, 13 majors run. Steve, excuse me, Chris, what you got? Steve, do you find yourself caddying off the course where you're like a friend is walking down a hill and you're like this hill breaks a little to the right and there's like a little bump there that you got to avoid? Look, we've caddied for as long as I've carried. I guess it's just kind of ingrained in here.

Basically I started as a kid at my local golf course here in New Zealand, sort of eight or nine years old, carrying every single weekend, 36 holes a day to the point where, and then I came for 40 plus years on the tour. So, um, it's something that you'll always be inclined to view things from a caddie's perspective, not from a player's perspective, I guess. You're like in an Uber and you're like, I should have made a left there. I think that that lane is a little better than this one. What are you doing in the middle lane here?

Yeah, possibly. Yeah. Do you is it possible that you could look up your Uber rating? Is that too much to ask? Is that too difficult? We had to go through all of our people in our room today to see who had the best Uber rating. Is that something that you think you could manage? Well, I think you'd have to fear to say it's a zero because I've never used an Uber, so.

Wow. Wow. That is private car. Yeah, big money. I ain't messing with no Ubers. I got a personal driver. I see you, Steve. I drive myself everywhere from, so no, no, I haven't had the pleasure of having to use an Uber yet. And if I have used one, my wife would have booked it for me

because I'm not, I don't carry apps on my phone. So I'm a bit old school. Steve, where would most likely a heated interaction between you and Caddy, you and Tiger at the peak of you working with them, like your heated exchange, where would that take place? Well, we only really had one heated exchange and it was at Augusta in 2003. Tiger got to the third hole at Augusta, the tee was positioned at the front of the tee, which made it possible where you could drive the green.

And I'd been out on the course earlier that morning and told them on the practice fairway that they'd moved the tee up on the third hole. So sometimes the third hole is an iron off the tee to keep it short of the bunkers and sometimes you hit a driver to get over the bunkers depending on where the wind is and where the whole location is. But on this particular day, the tee was moved up so the bunkers weren't in play. There's no doubt in my mind it was a driver. He didn't like the play.

I couldn't see why he didn't like the play. I talked him into it. He hit an absolute shit shot. And in fact, found a way out to the right and eventually made a bogey on a hole that you should make three, four at the worst. And that possibly stopped the momentum that he had after starting with four, four and didn't do any good in the tournament in the end. And he carried on like an absolute pork chop for the next few holes. that he had after starting with 4-4 and, you know, didn't do any good in the tournament in the end.

And he carried on like an absolute pork chop for the next few holes and, you know, like a little salb baby, whatever. And then on the ninth hole, I just actually let it rip. It was the first time I'd done that since I started with him. Just gave an absolute mouthful and a bollocking about his behavior and the way he was carrying on in that. And that was all good. And then when we completed the round he said, hey, thanks very much for the Pep Tour Cup 9 and everything.

So yeah, but like we got on like a house on fire when I was working for him. I think that was the only time that we ever had any kind of, you know, really heated argument. It was unfortunate, it was during the round of a major championship. But when I came up to 18th hole, I thought, well, this might be the last time going to Tiger Hill. I liked what I said, or we absolutely hated what I said. So, yeah, he was very good about it.

So we laughed about that a little bit. What do you think is the best quality that you bring, or most value that you brought as a caddy? Was it the psychological part of it, or was it just the clubs, or I guess I should just let you answer. Just basically not afraid to voice your opinion. I'm straight up sort of bloke of that and when there's a lot on the line, I'm not scared to voice your opinion and try and sway a player your way or whatever it might be.

But just basically I think you'll find the common trade amongst all the best Ks, the guys that are prepared to stand up and not be afraid to be wrong. Obviously, when it comes down to the crux of major championships and golf tournaments and that, and there's a lot on the line, it's very easy just to be what we call a yes man and just agree with the player.

Because some Ks are afraid to be wrong, but you can't ever be afraid to be wrong. If you can speak up and voice your opinion, you know, you're gonna be successful. Name them, hoot or yes, man. Call them out. Oh. No, you don't call out your workmates, that's for sure.

Oh, that's news here. Oh, oh, we call them out around here. Hey, Stevie, I stumbled over a question. I guarantee when we let you go, all my workmates, we are gonna get along like a house on fire in this mother. Anyway, Chris, what'd you have? I wanna know what you think of Bubba Watson saying that Scheffler in 2024 was better than Tiger in 2000.

Well, I mean, I think that's a staggering statement to make. I mean, look, if a player won three major championships and no other torments, and a player won one major championship and 20 torments, the guy that's won three major championships gets to nod in everybody's book. So I don't know what he was basing it on, but I guess it's above a comment. Some guys are looking for some attention. I think that's probably what he was doing here. You know, like Bubba's fallen off the radar and he's probably looking for a bit of attention here.

But you know, like Scotty Schieffler had an incredible year in 2024, played unbelievable golf, and somewhat similar to some of the years that Tiger put together, but arguably you can't bet against a guy that won three major championships in one year. And also in the fashion that he did it, if you look at the US Open at Pebble Beach and the Open Championship at St. Andrews, not only were they were victories, one was by 15 shots and one was by seven shots. So they were memorable tournaments with breaking scoring records in both of them. So yeah, I'm not sure whether Bubba was confused in 2000, maybe another year.

What do you think about the TGL? The what? TGL. Have you been watching at all the... Down here in New Zealand, there's no way to watch that. So I haven't seen any of it. No, I can't. I can't ask that question. I haven't followed any of it. So, yeah.

If you had to pick one thing that made Tiger so much more dominant than the next guy, his hands, his mental toughness, what would you say made Tiger so much better than everybody else in his prime? Oh, look, I think it's just his desire. I mean, his desire to be the best that he could be and, you know, be the greatest player. A lot of people grow up when they're youngsters and they want to be the best player in the world and they're going to put a lot of effort in, but when you actually get onto the tour and that and realize what it takes to be the best player, um, that can

sway your vision on how you're thinking about that, but just as continual desire, when pro athletes, as we all know, and everyone's aware, uh, they make a lot of money and sometimes when they get a lot of, I hit a button by mistake, Steve. We'll talk about this after. I tried to move the microphone. House on fire. Yeah, they're going to call me out afterwards.

Try to move the microphone, slap the button. I'm sorry, Steve. I ruined this interview. That was terrible. That was horrible. Steve, please continue. That was really bad, Steve. I'm sorry.

You chunked it. I think what happens in golf, there's a lot of players that have, you know, a huge amount of talent. And when they get a huge amount of success, there's a lot of wealth comes around there. And when you get a lot of wealth, it becomes a lot of toys that come around.

And whether it be a fishing boat, a private plane, fast cars, whatever it might be. And sometimes I think some of the guys that are capable of playing at the same level that Tiger did, they just take their foot off the gas a little bit because the niceties that come with your success take away some of the opportunity to practice as hard because you've got other things to play with and so forth. But yeah, Tiger's just his desire and work ethic to continue to be the best player that he could be and never had any distractions that he took away from trying to be.

He's just a phenomenal worker and continued to work hard throughout his career to be the best player he could. And despite all his success and fame and wealth and that, nothing changed his vision on trying to be the greatest player that's ever played the game. I'm ordering my book now, not only because I want to order it and can't wait to read it, but because I would like to apologize

for messing up the interview with a button press. Together we roar alongside Tiger for his epic 12 year rung, available April 1st. What you got, Chris? What's the golf tip that you hear on the range where you know somebody's faking it and you know this person has no idea what they're actually talking about and is it when someone says,

oh, you lifted your head. Yeah, well, I mean, if you're talking about going to the drive in range with your mates and that that is certainly a common thing to hit. Oh, you lifted your head, but oh look at that. You know, there's so many moving parts to a golf swing and there's so many, everybody's different in that and everybody swings the club differently and there's so many, everybody has all different faults

in that, but you know, your common player that plays golf, your average player that plays golf and doesn't play very often, the biggest mistake they make is they aim to the right and they come over the ball, which means, you know, because they're aiming right and they're trying to hit it left of where they're aiming at, what they do, they come over it and they slice it. So you know, you guys probably play golf and you understand what a slice is and you know, you're a common golfer that doesn't play a lot slices of ball

And you know, that's probably the most common thing you see Chris is just trying to get his golf game better So anyway, thanks a lot Steve make sure everyone orders the book coming on April 1st together. We roar Alright, man, appreciate you. Yeah, good to be on your show guys. Enjoy the rest of the day. Thank you Steve Weather is starting to warm up, regular season starting to wind down, games of consequence in sports starting to ramp up. I know what you're gonna need by your side. It's by my side already. Miller Light. Yeah that's right I'm making my spring time a Miller time. I'm making my sports time Miller time. Going to a car race Miller time. Gonna see some tennis

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