Tiger Woods’ ex-caddie reveals surprising biggest rival to golf icon – ‘Hated to lose’

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Many would assume Tiger Woods’ biggest rival over the years would be Phil Mickelson but the 15-time major champion’s former caddie Steve Williams has in fact named Vijay Singh in that regard – revealing that the pair “just hated to lose to each other”.

Williams caddied for Woods between 1999 and 2011, during which time the 46-year-old won 13 of his 15 major championships. And he has now revealed that Woods had something of a ‘love-hate’ relationship with Singh, who won three Majors during his career.

Williams also stated there was a period of around a year where Singh was ‘almost as good as Tiger if not better’. Speaking on the Chasing Majors podcast, he said: “Vijay is obviously held with a lot of respect given the amount of practice he does.

“There’s no player that spent more time practicing than Vijay did, and obviously a very good player. He had a stretch there one year where he was like, almost as good as Tiger or, you know, if not better than Tiger, when he had that amazing stretch there. 

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“Vijay was always a bit of a streaky kind of putter and probably not as consistent on the greens. He was always a threat, but it was a great rivalry because it was sort of a love hate sort of thing.

“You know, they both love each other, hate each other sort of thing. So, they both have deep respect for each other’s game and they always want to beat each other’s brains in, that’s for sure.”

Williams went on to state that Woods’ rivalry with Singh was “even greater” than his rivalry with Phil Mickelson. He added: “You know, Vijay and of course, you know, as strong as the relationship – oh sorry! – the rivalry between Tiger and Phil. 

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“Tiger and Vijay was even greater probably, I mean, the two guys just hated to lose to each other.” Williams also reflected on the 2006 Deutsche Bank Championship, where Woods defeated Singh, beating him by two strokes to win the event.

Speaking about the final round, Williams added: “Tiger was desperate on Sunday. You know, just somehow get in the mix. And then he [Tiger] goes out in 29 I mean, it’s just it’s another story that’s just mind-boggling.”

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