Tiger Woods’ legendary caddie Steve Williams won’t be on Anthony Quayle’s bag for long, but his impact was felt during this week’s BMW Australian PGA Championship.
The 31-year-old Quayle is a new member of the DP World Tour and will have Williams on the bag for two weeks before he heads over to Europe. Williams, who caddied for Tiger Woods in 13 of his major wins and for Adam Scott during his 2013 Masters win, had a big impact on Quayle during this week’s proceedings at Royal Queensland.
Quayle opened with a four-under 67 and backed it up with a 66. A Saturday 67 put him in a three-way tie for the 54-hole lead alongside David Puig and Ricardo Gouveia.
As Quayle made his way around Royal Queensland, Williams’ experience, conviction and temperament helped steer him away from trouble and into contention. Williams’ impact was evident during the second round when he called Quayle off an approach shot to change clubs. Quayle listened to the advice, stuffed the shot and made birdie.
“It’s unbelievable; that trait is so rare,” Quayle said of Williams’ conviction, via Golf Digest Australia’s Evin Priest. “I think he is really putting his neck on the line. It’s cool for a player [to see that]. I felt like he wouldn’t be doing it unless he was 100 percent set [sure], and I felt pretty confident as soon as he did. His language and how he delivers the message eliminates any doubt and I felt like that new plan was the only plan and then just executed.”
Quayle said that Williams won’t be a permanent fixture on his bag, but the 62-year-old will pop up from time to time.
How often Williams’ caddies for Quayle, who earned his DP World Tour card via the Australian Tour’s Order of Merit, is yet to be seen. But he’ll relish the opportunity to soak up knowledge from Williams whenever he gets the chance.
“He’s probably the most positive and clear caddie that I’ve ever worked with,” Quayle said of Williams after the first round, via news.com/au. “He probably has a reputation for being quite intense, but my experience today wasn’t that at all. It was just very direct (with) ‘this is what we need to do here, you think you can do it? Yes, let’s do it then’. There was no room at all for any sort of doubt at any point. It just didn’t seem to creep into my mind. Anytime I did make a little bit of a mistake, it wasn’t like he was jumping on me. It was like ‘yeah, that’s fine mate, everyone makes bad swing from time to time, let’s make a good one on the next one.’
“His professionalism and his demeanor, it rubs off on you if you’re in close proximity,” Quayle told the DP World Tour after the second round. “It has been fantastic. Looking forward to the next couple weeks and then any other time I get the opportunity.”
Quayle arrived at Royal Queensland on Sunday with a chance to win, but he double bogeyed the second and fifth holes to fall well back of Puig, who pulled away from the pack to claim the trophy. Quayle made a couple of birdies coming home to shoot a final round two-over 73 and finish in a tie for 10th.
While Anthony Quayle didn’t hoist the trophy at Royal Queensland, he and Steve Williams will head to next week’s star-studded Australian Open, which will include Rory McIlroy, feeling good about their partnership and ability to get a win and earn a spot in the 2026 Masters.
