Career
Williams was born in Wellington. He began his career of caddying at his home club at age 6. By age 10, he was frequently caddying 36 holes on weekend days and then practicing his golf game until dark, becoming a two-handicapper by age 13. However, as he reports on his official site, "by the age of thirteen I found myself enjoying caddying more than playing."
He received his first break as a caddy in 1976, when his father arranged for him to carry the bags of Australian great Peter Thomson in the New Zealand Open. Thomson, who finished third, was impressed with the young Williams, who became his regular caddy when he played in New Zealand. The teenaged Williams also traveled to Australia on school breaks to caddy in tournaments there. In 1979, before he turned 16, he left school and moved to Europe to become a caddy on the European Tour.
Williams spent much of the next decade caddying on almost all of the world's major professional tours. He got steady work with several Australian pros, among them Ian Baker-Finch. During this time, he met Greg Norman, and in 1982 became Norman's regular caddy in all his events in Asia and Australia, as well as some European events. In 1988, Williams moved to the United States to become Norman's full-time caddy. However, Norman would fire him in 1989. Williams admitted later that he had gotten too close personally to Norman. Nonetheless, the two remain good friends, and Norman later admitted he had made a mistake and tried to rehire him several years later. Williams would not long stay unemployed, as Raymond Floyd hired him shortly after Norman let him go. He continued to carry Floyd's bag on both the regular and senior U.S. tours until 1999.
Read more about this topic: Steve Williams (caddy)
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