It wasn’t a question you’d expect would catch the normally unflappable Adam Scott off guard. After all, it’s not like he hasn’t had time to properly digest the magic that was his historic Masters victory in 2013.
Yet here he was, in the ballroom of a hotel at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, immaculately presented in a trademark Uniqlo jumper (of course!), overcome with emotion and a little stuck
for words.
The occasion? A reunion of sorts, with the man who helped him claim Australia’s first green jacket all those years ago: super caddie Steve Williams.
Australian Golf Digest’s PGA Tour correspondent, Evin Priest, somehow managed to get both Scott and Williams together on his breakthrough podcast series titled “Chasing Majors”. While Scott agreed to sit down in person with Priest at Bay Hill – the day before his round one tee-time at Arnie’s event, no less – Williams dialled in from New Zealand to recount their historic Masters win together, as well as the origins of their relationship and Scott’s remarkable rise to world No.1.
Everything was going swimmingly – the pair swapping barbs and stories from their time together – when Priest sent a shoutout to Marc Leishman for putting aside his own devastation of falling out of contention at Augusta in 2013 to high-five Scott during that iconic “C’mon, Aussie” celebration.
“I’m a proud Aussie and we’re proud sportspeople,” Scott says before taking a moment to compose himself. “That photo of ‘Leish’ is one of my favourites. He and his caddie (Matt Kelly) got two huge high-fives and I think I may have hit his hand a little too hard because he still had a four-foot putt, but I’m glad he knocked it in [laughs]. The emotions were really flowing at that point.”
Scott takes another short pause as the lump in his throat returns.
“It endeared [Leishman] for life to me,” Scott adds. “We’re good mates now and we’ve had a lot of laughs since. I really can’t believe it was my destiny to be the first Aussie [to win the Masters]. I’ve got this asterisk next to my name. But so many other Aussies inspired me to get there, including Greg Norman.”
So caught up in the reunion was Scott, it encroached on his next commitment – a Presidents Cup International team dinner. Time took a back seat as the pair continued reminiscing about a golden time for Aussie golf.
Their episode follows a riveting 13-part series Priest records one-on-one with Williams, who reveals untold stories of Tiger Woods during their historic partnership together that saw the Big Cat claim 13 of his 15 Major victories.
In each episode Williams opens up about his working relationship with Woods, the pressure and scrutiny of caddieing for arguably the world’s biggest athlete, and what was involved in preparing Woods for the four Majors each year.
Judging by the ratings, golf fans are soaking up every minute of Williams’ stories about Woods’ practice habits, on-course discussions and equipment, including “the worst golf shot” Williams ever saw a pro hit (hint: it was struck by Tiger) and Woods calling his Kiwi bagman a “sheep shagger”. At the time of writing, “Chasing Majors” was the No.1 golf podcast in both Australia and the United States – that’s some debut!
You might be wondering, what motivated Williams do a podcast after all these years?
“I thought maybe it would be selfish to sit on some of these stories if I was asked to tell them,” Williams told Australian Golf Digest.
“I got to experience things nobody else ever will, so it’s an honour to share them with the golf world. I’m just a guy from New Zealand and I know how rare these moments were.
“I had never done a podcast series before and I didn’t realise it was going to be as fun as it turned out to be. My time with Tiger, it was such a whirlwind that I didn’t ever stop to smell the roses really. So, I quite enjoyed reliving all those memories. I’m a golf nut like all of us, so I hope golf fans enjoy them.”
Now you can. Listen to the entire Tiger series and the bonus Adam Scott episode at https://apple.co/36VQlH5
Along with our monster preview beginning on page 110 of the April 2022 edition of AGD, there’s no better way to ring in the 2022 Masters!
