How Steve Williams saved Tiger Woods' 2008 US Open

Jim "Bones" Mackay discussed the inner world of caddying recently and discussed that famous 2008 US Open.

By Kyle Porter

Apr 22, 2015 at 4:35 am ET • 1 min read

Alan Shipnuck of Sports Illustrated recently taped a podcast with Mickelson's caddie, Jim "Bones" Mackay. They discussed some of Mickelson's hilarious idiosyncrasies as well as the last time Tiger Woods won a major championship.

"I was with a player in the recent past who said something along the lines about not being so sure about how much caddies can help," said Mackay.

"My response to him was we played the first two rounds with Tiger at the '08 US Open at Torrey Pines which he famously went along to win. I told him 'I know for a fact just watching he and Steve Williams work together that day that Steve Williams saved him 2-4 shots just in the two rounds we played with him.'"

Woods obviously went on to win the tournament in a playoff.

Bones told some other great stories, too.

We already know Phil Mickelson treats golf differently when he leaves the United States. This hilarious Nick Watney gambling story alerted us of that.

Apparently it extends to other areas of his game as well.

One of the things they discussed was the rule that Bones gets one veto on one shot per year. Well...kind of.

"Technically I do, but there's been some controversy of late about that because I've tried to use them overseas and he's trying to tell me it's domestic only," said Mackay.

Other highlights:

• Bones said Mickelson will sometimes call the fact that he's going to make a long putt by saying, "I'm getting that funny feeling here."

• He ranked Mickelson's greatest shots (driver at Baltusrol for his first PGA, pine straw on No. 13 at 2010 Masters and every shot from the 2013 British Open).

• He tells the famous story from Las Vegas when there was an earthquake and he went straight for Mickelson's clubs.

• He tells a story about a caddie telling his player, "You might be the worst short-iron player in the history of the game."

Give it a listen.