As if Tiger Woods did not have enough problems at the moment, his former caddie Steve Williams has released an autobiography in which he accuses the 14-time major champion of treating him "like a slave", of "disrespecting the game of golf" and, perhaps more embarras-singly, reopening the mistress scandal with fresh insight.
Williams, the gruff New Zea-lander who has encountered his own amount of criticism over the years, has not held back in Out of the Rough, which is released today (Monday).
Many will see this as belated payback by Williams for being sacked by Woods in the wake of the sex -expose at the turn of the decade, but one thing seems certain - as the golfer is confined to bed after his third back operation in just over a year, this will not make comfortable reading in his recuperation.
"One thing that really p----- me off was how he would flippantly toss a club in the general direction of the bag, expecting me to go over and pick it up," Williams writes. "I felt uneasy about bending down to pick up his discarded club - it was like I was his slave.
"The other thing that disgusted me was his habit of spitting at the hole if he missed a putt...
"He was well known for his bad temper and, while that wasn't plea-sant to witness... he had other bad habits that upset me. I wanted him to prove to me he could change his behaviour and show me - and the game of golf - more respect."
Williams, with whom Woods won 13 major titles over 13 years, for the first time provides insight into the moments when the former world No?1 and his camp realised he was going to be at the centre of a media storm which was to change his world and ruin his saintly reputation. He also details how Mark Steinberg, Woods's long-time agent, -instructed Williams to keep his silence.
Woods had just won the Austra-lian Masters but, far from cele-brating, the American and his -entourage all dashed off - without Williams.
"The joy of winning dissipated in the strangest fashion," Williams writes. "No sooner had Tiger fulfilled his media obligations than he fled to the airport in a chopper, leaving me to head back to the hotel on my own. As I was driving, I got a text from Mark Steinberg which read, 'There is a story coming out tomorrow. Absolutely no truth to it. Don't speak to anybody.'?"
Williams maintains that he never knew anything about Woods's multiple affairs and, in the excerpt publicised by the New Zealand website stuff.co.nz, Williams "claims he and his family were harassed by media and members of the public by association because Steinberg refused to put out a statement clearing him of any involvement in the scandal".