Tiger says bye-bye Stevie

In a stunner, Tiger Woods has fired long-time caddie Steve Williams, who was on the bag for all but one of his 14 majors titles.

Fired him, not released him to look for other golfers while Tiger continues to rehab. That this was a stunner is clear from Williams' comments:

"Needless to say this came as a shock," Williams said. "Given the circumstances of the past 18 months working through Tiger's scandal, a new coach and with it a major swing change and Tiger battling through injuries, I am very disappointed to end our very successful partnership at this time."

WTF? Even if they had some turbulence and fallout after Tiger's Escalade escapade, nobody (other than agent Mark Steinberg, for mercenary reasons) has been more loyal (at least seemingly) to Woods than Williams. If he's trying to reach new personal lows, Tiger's doing quite well at it.

WTF? As in "fired," not let him go to work for other golfers as Tiger's rehab time lengthens.

There's been about nobody more loyal, at least on the surface, to Tiger the last 2 years. Is he trying to hit new personal lows?

That said, ESPN interestingly trimmed some parts of the AP story, which says Williams knew about this two weeks ago.

Williams told The Associated Press that he met with Woods in a board room at Aronimink after the final round of the AT&T National and told him they would no longer work together. Williams said he chose to keep quiet out of respect to Scott, not wanting the Australian to face queries from the British media at Royal St. George’s.

That's class. Real class on Williams' part and "class" with snark on Woods' part.

Williams reveals more on class vs. "class":

In a telephone interview, Williams said he was not upset by being fired and said he was proud to have been fired only twice in his 33 years as a caddie—by Woods and Norman.

“But I’m disappointed in the timing of it,” he said. “To be as loyal as someone can be, and with what one had to go through over the last 18 months . . . “

Move on, Stevie. Oh, and don't be such a cameraman thug for Adam Scott. Lighten up. (I think you will.)

Yahoo's golf blog says it's not a surprise. Still, Tiger could have handled this better.

That said, there's other takeaways, namely one big one.

Tiger's done for the year. He's not going to pick up a new looper on the fly and be competitive in the PGA Championship or even at Firestone. And, he'll finish outside the top 125 on the FedEx chase anyway. So, he'd done for the year.

You Woodsaholics, who are as nutso as Obamiacs? Deal with it. And, I hope Adam Scott wins a major, soon, with Williams on his bag.