Tiger Woods vs. Steve Williams: Who's Lying?

After watching the conclusion of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational yesterday afternoon and the shocking interviews that followed, I said to myself that I wasn’t going to do this.

Adam Scott won a World Golf Championship by five strokes, and that should be the big story of the weekend, not the latest edition of As Woods’ World Turns.

But one thing struck me that I just couldn’t ignore any longer.

It wasn’t the fact that Steve Williams was clearly a bitter ex-employee who went out of his way to bask in his vengeful triumph.

It wasn’t that after 13 majors and more than 60 PGA Tour wins with Woods, Williams said that Sunday was the best win of his career. 

It wasn’t the fact that Williams stole the show from his new employer, Adam Scott, who was, after all, the guy hitting the golf ball last week at Firestone Country Club.

And it wasn’t the fact that a caddie—and not just any caddie, but one who had been uncooperative and downright rude to the media for the better part of 13 years—actually spoke with David Feherty on national television and then spent another 15 minutes speaking to a large group of media members outside of the clubhouse.  

Nope. 

The big story that I took away from Williams' bitter post-round crusade was how Woods was once again exposed as a pathological liar.

When asked on August 2nd if he told Williams face to face about his decision to make a caddie change, Woods answered “Yes, I did.”

Woods then went on to say “We had a nice conversation. We did it after he completed play at AT&T National up in the boardroom, and it was a tough conversation, but we said what we needed to say to each other face to face and man to man.”

Less than a week later, when asked if Woods fired him face to face at the AT&T National, Williams said, "That is incorrect.  I was told on the phone that we needed to take a break.  At the AT&T, the details of the firing were discussed."

According to ESPN’s Bob Harig, Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg disputed Williams' claim by saying, "Tiger flew from Florida to Philly to visit AT&T National and also for the express purpose of personally and officially telling Steve that they would no longer be working together.  Tiger felt strongly about meeting face to face. Any assertions to the contrary are simply false."

Normally, this would just be a childish case of he-said she-said, but given Woods’ history of blatantly lying to the fans, the media and the general public, one can’t help but take Williams' side on this one. 

Prior to the 2010 Players Championship, Woods was asked whether or not he was still working with Hank Haney, to which he replied “I'm still working with him, yeah.”

Two days later, when asked again about his relationship with Haney, Woods said, “Hank and I talk every day, so nothing's changed.”

However, as we would later learn from Haney, he and Woods had not worked together since the Masters that April and had not even spoken in weeks. 

Prior to this year’s Players Championship, Woods was asked about the state of his injuries, to which he replied, “Oh, yeah, the knee is better, no doubt. The Achilles is better, as well. So I'm here playing.”

Two days later he withdrew after the tournament after just nine holes and said “I'm having a hard time walking,” right before he bounded up the stairs to the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse.

Woods constantly says that he is hitting the ball longer than ever, when the stats simply do not back up his claim.

Woods actually said that he was driving the ball well last week, yet he finished dead last in the field in driving accuracy.

At numerous times over the past few years, Woods has said that he’s as healthy as a horse just days before disclosing injuries that had been nagging him for days, weeks, months and even years.  

Now, despite a complete economic collapse, soaring unemployment, absurd health care and education costs and a government that is unable to accomplish anything, this is still a free country, so Woods is not obliged to tell the truth if he doesn’t feel like it. 

However, most ordinary people simply assume that the man standing in front of them is not blatantly lying without any hesitation whatsoever.

It is becoming clearer by the day that Woods seems to have some kind of addiction to lying.  It’s very rare that a press conference or interview with Woods goes by these days without him blurting out one untruthful statement after another. 

Plain and simple, Woods has lost the trust of just about everyone, which is why no one will think twice about believing Williams' side of the story as it pertains to exactly how Woods fired him.   

Oh yeah, and Adam Scott won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational by five strokes and the year’s final major begins in less than three days.

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