WGC-Bridgestone Notebook: Adam Scott won't get involved in Tiger Woods-Steve Williams split

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Adam Scott has been impressed with caddie Steve Williams' blunt assessment of his game in their few weeks together.

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Doug Ferguson

Associated Press

Series: PGA Tour

Even after Tiger Woods fired him as his caddie on July 3, after the AT&T National, Steve Williams chose not to go public until after the British Open so it would not be a distraction to his new employer, Adam Scott.

After the split was announced, Williams went on New Zealand television and said he was disappointed with Woods and that he felt as though he had wasted the last two years of his life. Clearly, hard feelings remain.

Scott, though, isn't interested.

"To be honest, I haven't really been following it," Scott said Thursday after his 8-under 62 in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational gave him a one-shot lead over Jason Day and left him six shots clear of Woods, who played for the first time since May 12.

"I don't really care," Scott said. "It's not my business. And until it really has an effect on me and how I'm going to play, then I'm not going to ... he's dealing with it the way he wants to deal with it. He's a big boy. He can handle it."

There appears to have been no communication between Scott and Woods, and the Australian isn't sure there needs to be.

He asked Williams to caddie for him at the U.S. Open if the Kiwi were available, and when Williams learned (after flying to America) that Woods was not going to play at Congressional, he called Scott. Williams caddied again for him at the AT&T National, where he was fired by Woods, and then the British Open.

Scott said at the U.S. Open that he has not talked to Woods, and he hasn't seen him at Firestone.

"I saw him at Aronimink (site of the AT&T National), but I had no idea that it was going down like that," Scott said. "I haven't seen him yet. I don't think it should be awkward. This kind of thing happens on tour. It happens a lot every year with everyone, and just because it's Tiger and Steve, I'm not going to treat it like it's anything different than anyone else going through this.

"I hope it's not going to be awkward," he said. "I don't have a problem, but if he has a problem, then he can definitely tell me."

Scott is more interested in what Williams has to say, and so far he has been impressed.

One thing is clear. Williams doesn't mince words, a similar bluntness to what Scott received when he worked with Butch Harmon.

"He's been very honest with me what he thinks of my game," Scott said. "He thinks I can be as good a player as I want to be, but he's adamant that you've got to put the work in, and I think he sees that I am putting in the work."

Scott was asked if he thought Williams felt a little more motivation because this was Woods' first tournament back.

"He just wants to get me going, wants to get me playing like this more often," Scott said. "Yeah, I'm sure he feels good about today."

BIG FIRST SERVE: Sergio Garcia played with tape tightly wrapped around his right wrist, due to a slight injury that doesn't affect his golf game. In fact, he didn't even tweak it playing golf.

It was tennis.

Garcia, known to be a good tennis player, had a doubles match last week with some of the tennis teachers at The Greenbrier. On one particular serve, Garcia went at it pretty hard and felt a twinge on the side of his right hand.

"It doesn't bother me," Garcia. "It's just being safe."

Garcia said if he really pops a good serve, he can reach up to 110 mph.

CLARKE'S DAY: Darren Clarke is back at the Bridgestone Invitational because of his win at the British Open. It just didn't go as well as he had planned.

Playing with Tiger Woods, Clarke bogeyed the opening hole from a fairway bunker, chipped through the green for another bogey on No. 5 and couldn't get up-and-down from a bunker on the seventh.

It looked as though he was back in business on No. 8, when his 7-iron from 184 yards bounced twice and dropped for eagle. But it fell apart on the back nine, especially on the 17th.

Clarke had about a 15-foot birdie putt that came up 2 feet short. He jokingly pulled the putter back like he was going to smash what looked to be a tap-in par. Settling over the ball with a grin on his face, he missed the putt and took bogey.

Clarke wound up with a 77.

"Tough day. Did my best but my best was poor today," Clarke later said on Twitter.

DIVOTS: Ryo Ishikawa cut off most of his hair, but didn't lose much strength. He opened with a 67, finishing with an unlikely par on the 18th when he hit a 60-yard wedge from near the hospitality area and made a 10-foot putt. ... The top 10 on the leaderboard featured players from seven countries. ... Hunter Mahan and Graeme McDowell were the only players who failed to make par on the par-5 second hole, the easiest at Firestone.

Post-Practice Transcripts: August 19th

Posted Aug 19, 2008

By BaltimoreRavens.com



Featuring Head Coach John Harbaugh.


Head Coach John Harbaugh

On if they have picked a starting quarterback for Saturday: “We’re not ready to announce it yet.”



On what the timetable is for Willis McGahee’s return: “There is a timetable, but I’d have to say it’s fluid, because you just don’t know for sure. That’s the thing coaches ask all the time: ‘Tell us when he’s going to be back.’ We want that answer, too, but it’s impossible. There’s a chance of [him not seeing action in the preseason]. Certainly, everything worries you. You’re concerned about everything, but we do the best we can with whatever circumstances we’re faced with.”



On how the structure of the preseason has changed due to injuries: “The structure is the same. The structure sets up as a team structure. The third game is the game you play your guys together as a group for the most plays, but there are going to be certain individuals that may need to play more in the fourth game because they don’t play the third game, or maybe not. We just have to deal with it case by case.”



On TE Daniel Wilcox injured toe: “Dan could be our second tight end, which is an important spot right now. There’s a chance he could play in the fourth preseason game. He’s pushing it really hard in practice. It’s a pain issue and a structure issue, just to see if it’ll hold up.”



On the positives for the quarterbacks: “I can tell you what I like about them. The thing that, to me, is almost amazing, is the way they’ve operated the offense. We can all get upset or nitpick a throw here or a ball-handling situation there, but they’ve managed the offense very well. You’re talking about a brand new offense. You’ve got Kyle [Boller], who’s got 42 starts and you would expect that a little bit. You’ve got Troy [Smith] who’s got 2 starts, and it’s a new offense for Troy. We haven’t had too many situations where we look like, ‘Man, we don’t know what we’re doing out there!’ They’re getting guys lined up, they’re getting guys in position. They’re handling the clock. I think that’s been a really big plus.”



On how difficult the quarterback decision is: “It would be easy if one guy would just jump out there or if one guy would just fall flat on his face. That would be easy. Neither guy has really done either. They’ve played well, but neither one of them has played great. Neither one of them has fallen on their face, and we don’t want that, either. They’ve both gotten better since the spring. They’re both improving, so it’s made it a tough decision, sure.”



On not naming a starter and what that may mean for rookie QB Joe Flacco: “I’d like to see him get a start, but we only play four games, so it’s not going to be possible. It’s not that we’re not going to make the announcement; we’re going to make it. We just want to make sure that we’re communicating with everybody in our building first before we do anything. We already know what we’re going to do. So we’re going to go through all that first and then we’ll let you know. And that will be soon.”



On what is delaying the decision: “This is for this week. I don’t think there’s anybody here that can say that they’d be in position to make that decision yet. We want to do the right thing, we want to take our time and try to find the right guy who gives the best chance to win the next game.”



On whether he’d like to have the quarterback situation cleared up by the fourth game: “I’d like to, yeah. I’d like to this week. I’d have liked to a week ago. You’d like to know your guy in March, but that’s not the situation that we’re in and we need to manage this the right way and the smart way. It could be anywhere in between – after the third game is over or five minutes before the Bengals game. We’ve got that option to do it however we need.”



On whether CBS Chris McAlister and Samari Rolle will be ready for Saturday: “I would say yes, but I wouldn’t want to put a definite on it now. I want to see how they hold up in practice. Same for Todd Heap.”



On S Ed Reed’s progress: “I think it’s a little more slow progress than maybe we all thought it was going to be. Maybe Ed had a sense of that at one time, because he’s the guy that feels it. We’re still optimistic that it’s going to be the first week, but I don’t think you can say definitely right now. We continue to have doctors look at him, because we want to be absolutely sure. It’s not just about his ability to play in a game. It’s the ability to make sure that we have no doubt whatsoever that he’s good from now and forever, and that he’s not at risk in any way. Right now, nobody thinks he’s at risk in any way, but we want to make darn sure that’s the case.”



On the consequences of Reed’s injury: “The plus is that those guys have gotten lots of reps, so we feel like they’re ready to step in and do as well as they could be expected to. But Ed’s also gotten a bunch of reps in the red shirt, so we feel like he’s going to be ready as well. Certainly, he doesn’t need certain things at this stage of his career, so I think we’ve managed it the best way we can in the situation.”



On whether he is worried about being short on bodies after the approaching the roster cut-down date: “Not unless we get new injuries. We’re getting guys coming back right now. You look out there now and you see a lot of bodies, and our target was this week. Unless we get new injuries, we should be OK with that.”