(Image source: The Star-Ledger)

 

BY SAM KOROTKIN

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

You're watching multisource sports news analysis from Newsy.

It was Tiger Woods and Stevie Williams - not together - but against each other. Woods won 13 majors in 13 years with his former caddy, but the two split in dramatic fashion just four months ago.

At the President’s Cup in Australia on Thursday, Woods and Williams faced each other for the first time since Woods fired Williams. Drama, right? Not really. The two exchanged a handshake, and let the golf go uninterrupted. Golf Week’s Jeff Rude explains.

“Yes, life goes forward. But one senses that remnants of recent animosity still live. Between handshakes, Woods and Williams had no interaction and pretty much stayed away from each other. As on-course television reporter David Feherty cracked on the fourth hole, "They'd have to shout to each other."

While their reunion didn’t necessarily live up to it’s hype, Emily Kay of Waggle Room says it certainly will be remembered.

“…the emotionless, begrudging grasp, with Woods extending his hand and Williams standing as far from his former employer as he could and still make contact, will live on forever. Just ask every NFL coach who’s had to undergo the awkwardness of the Bill Belichick Embrace.”

Instead, the beat down Woods and PGA partner Steve Stricker endured took center stage. Golf Digest explains.

“(Woods) suffered the most humiliating defeat of his career. After the handshake, he and his partner Steve Stricker were demolished by Scott and K.J. Choi 7 and 6 even as the Americans took a 4-2 lead. Irrelevance could not have come faster. Woods and Stricker never won a hole.”

The 7 and 6 loss matches the biggest rout in President’s Cup history, but the Golf Channel’s Charlie Rymer says Tiger and Stricker didn’t lose this; rather Choi and Scott won it.

“I think it’s really clear that the Internationals won it. I mean, they went out and played some tremendous golf. Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker obviously didn’t play very well. In their defense a little bit, they weren’t playing circus golf, they weren’t all over the yard- they were on the edges.”