Williams, Woods sing each other's praises

PARAPARAUMU BEACH, New Zealand - Tiger Woods says he confides in caddie Steve Williams and counts him among his best friends. Williams, more guarded, says Woods is a friend most of the time, an employer all of the time and one who knows where to draw the line. <br> <br> Williams was in the unusual position for a caddie of appearing at a New Zealand Open news conference Wednesday due to the unprecedented interest his own return to his homeland has caused. <br> <br> He was one of the reasons Woods came to New Zealand to play at Paraparaumu, a course that Williams played almost daily as a junior. <br> <br> &#34;When you&#39;re a kid you try to hit the ball as hard as you can and when we were kids we used to go out on the fourth hole and try to smash it,&#34; Williams said. &#34;When Tiger played that hole today (in the pro-am), he was about 80 yards past my best. I said to him, &#39;You play golf, I&#39;ll carry the bag.&#34;&#39; <br> <br> Williams first caddied in a professional tournament in the 1976 New Zealand Open at Heretaunga, near Wellington, when his father, an amateur golfer, asked Australian Peter Thomson to trust the task to his then-13-year-old son. <br> <br> Thomson, who won the New Zealand Open title nine times, didn&#39;t win that week but thought enough of the youngster to give him 150 New Zealand dollars, a golf bag and a bunch of balls. <br> <br> Now Williams has become the inspiration to many young New Zealanders who would have the same career. There was a lineup of more than 90 hopefuls, mostly young club golfers, outside the caddieshack at Papaparaumu on Tuesday morning. <br> <br> Williams, who has been with Woods for three years, also caddied for a decade for Ray Floyd and for eight years with Greg Norman. <br> <br> In his partnership with Woods, he has a claim to seniority. Williams has been around the best courses in the United States longer than Woods and that has added strength to their partnership. <br> <br> &#34;He&#39;s only been on the tour seven years -- I&#39;ve been on it 23,&#34; Williams said. <br> <br> Although Williams is now based in Oregon, he hasn&#39;t forgotten his roots -- &#34;Tiger is the star of the show and I&#39;m his caddie, but I&#39;m proud to say I&#39;m a caddie from New Zealand.&#34; <br> <br> He doesn&#39;t try to explain why he and Woods have become an efficient team, nor does he believe he has the job forever. <br> <br> &#34;There is no job security,&#34; Williams said. &#34;Caddies, like tennis coaches, are expendable.&#34; <br> <br> He believes his two decades on the pro tour have endowed him with sound principals that assist Woods as they would any golfer. <br> <br> &#34;I take great pride in all I do as a caddie,&#34; Williams said. &#34;I try to prepare myself as best I can for any tournament. <br> <br> &#34;I think I&#39;m reasonably successful as a caddie because I&#39;m very confident in what I do. I&#39;ve done the same job for every player I&#39;ve caddied for and I don&#39;t do anything different for Tiger. I&#39;m set in my ways and he&#39;s set in his ways.&#34; <br> <br> Williams said his relationship with Woods is special, maybe even unique. <br> <br> &#34;I&#39;ve always thought as a golf caddie you want to keep a gap between you and the player,&#34; he said. &#34;You spend a lot of time together on the golf course and it&#39;s a very intense time. But my friendship with Tiger is one of those things that has happened. <br> <br> &#34;One of the great things is that Tiger knows when it&#39;s time to work and when it&#39;s time to play. He knows when that line&#39;s come.&#34; <br> <br> Woods said his relationship with Williams &#34;has gone beyond that of caddie and player.&#34; <br> <br> &#34;While he is important to me on the course, he has become a best friend and very close to me,&#34; Wood said. &#34;We confide in each other and I cherish that side of our relationship more than the golf.&#34; <br> <br> <br>