Second thoughts

Tiger Woods has lost his intimidation factor, according to his former caddie Steve Williams, who said he had yet to reconcile with Woods because of differences of opinion.
Tiger Woods has lost his intimidation factor, according to his former caddie Steve Williams, who said he had yet to reconcile with Woods because of differences of opinion.

Ex-caddie: Tiger’s roar not so scary

Outspoken caddie Steve Williams said Tuesday that former employer Tiger Woods has lost his intimidation factor.

“ That was a big thing, guys were quite intimidated by him but there is no intimidation anymore,”Williams told Fox Sports. “That counts for a lot.”

Williams was fired after Woods’ slide down the world rankings following the revelation that the American had a string of extramarital affairs.Since then, Woods has failed to win another major.

Williams, who plans to quit full time golf this year, told reporters that he had yet to reconcile with the Woods, the No. 1 player in the world, but that he hopes to one day.

“There’s just personal things and differences of opinion about how things went down,” said Williams, who now carries the bag of world No. 2 player Adam Scott and was on the bag when the Aussie won the Masters in 2013.

“He thinks one thing and I think another.”

All for Beau

When high school freshman Beau Howell entered in the final minutes of a championship game, it wasn’t just his teammates throwing him the ball.

Howell, who has autism, scored his first basket of the season Saturday in the CIF-Southern Section Division VI title game in Santa Ana, Calif., as his school, Trinity Classical Academy, went on to win 77-52. Howell scored after the opposing team, Desert Chapel High School, called a timeout to rethink its strategy and then proceeded to have its players give Howell the rebounds and assists for his three attempted shots, the third of which he made.

“Any time Beau gets in the game, the boys just feed him the ball,” Trinity’s head of school, Liz Caddow, told GoodMorningAmerica.com.

“Desert Chapel called a timeout and orchestrated it so that in the last few minutes of the game, they gave the ball back to Beau.”

Howell had come in off the bench in the final minutes of nine previous games where the game had already been decided.

Thorny subject

Sometimes the headline just writes itself.

“Baseball player in Cactus League to miss game because of cactus injury” is one of those happy moments. Well, except for the guy who stepped on the cactus.

Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Brewers reliever Francisco Rodriguez might have his scheduled spring debut delayed after he stepped barefooted on a cactus Tuesday on the team’s off day.

“They took out a lot of the thorns, but there’s still some in there,” Manager Ron Roenicke said. “I don’t think it’s that big of a setback, but I imagine he’s pretty sore today. You know how little some of the thorns are and they break off in there. So, I don’t know. But that’s what’s going on.”

Haudricourt added one more footnote, tweeting: “K-Rod’s cactus injury falls in the category of #Brewers GM Doug Melvin getting stung by scorpion last spring. #desertisdangerous.”

Quote of the day

“They’re playing as well as maybe anybody in this league right now.” Florida Coach Billy Donovan on Arkansas

Sports, Pages 20 on 03/13/2014

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