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A mindless idiot? A racist? Or both?

Tiger Woods and caddie Steve Williams make some final preparations © Getty Images

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One question has dominated golf this week: "Is Steve Williams, the former caddie of Tiger Woods, a racist?"

According to the majority of the media: Yes, he most certainly is.

But according to the man he admits referring to as a "black a*******"? Er, no, no he isn't.

"We talked it through. Steve is certainly not a racist. There is no doubt about that," Woods said in a public statement on the matter on Tuesday. "It was a comment that should not have been made.

"Obviously, it was the wrong thing to say - something we both acknowledged. It was hurtful, certainly. But life goes forward."

Woods' comments are interesting, even admirable - not only has he diverged from his usual brand of rehearsed banalities ("It is what it is"), but he has taken the higher ground in a matter where he could have been rightfully expected to demand punitive action which, it seems, will not now be forthcoming.

Both the PGA and European Tours have confirmed that Williams will not be punished for his remark (not publicly at least; but both are known to hand out undisclosed fines on a regular basis to players or caddies who act inappropriately), while Williams' employer, Adam Scott, has steadfastly resisted the growing calls for him to sack the New Zealander.

Woods' words are unlikely to be the end of an incident that has been embarrassing for golf, although it should move the discussion in that direction. Attendees at the boisterous Caddie of the Year awards dinner in Shanghai on Friday knew that they had been witness to something shocking as soon as Williams accepted the award for 'Celebration of the year' by revealing his aim prior to Adam Scott's victory at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational had been to "shove it up that black a*******"".

In a hastily-prepared statement, Williams acknowledged the next day that his comment "could be construed as racist" but stressed "that was not my intent." That did not stop the media demanding blood, however.

What is undeniable is that Williams has few fans among the media, a situation for which he can only take the blame. Uncooperative the majority of the time (unless trying to rub it in Tiger's face after an Adam Scott victory) and downright offensive a lot of it, Williams has never knowingly sought to endear himself to the many who report on the game for a living. It's tempting to suggest that this is coming back to haunt him now.

After all, by all accounts there were just a handful of journalists in the room when Williams made his comments (one of whom refused to report it, adhering to the pre-arranged agreement that everything said was 'off the record'). Yet it is only really that select band of journalists (almost all the players or caddies present have refused to comment publicly) who can truly report accurately about the circumstances, mood and intonation of Williams' remark.

For example, was he even referring to Woods as a "black a*******" - or to Woods' "black a*******"" (there is a difference, however minor)? Was the comment made in an attempt at humour, or with serious intent (whether there is any difference there is debatable)?

More precision engineering

Kaymer won in Shanghai © PA Photos

• Martin Kaymer gave everyone a much-needed reminder of his quality with a blistering victory at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai on Sunday, thanks to a back nine of 29.
• 
  The German has been written off in sections of the (predominantly American) press this year, for having the temerity not to replicate the major-winning season of 2010 that saw him become a major champion and built the basis for his run as world No. 1 earlier this year. But the reality of the matter is that Kaymer actually had a solid year, bookended by two victories (he won in January at the Abu Dhabi Championship) and filled with solid results (outside the majors in between).
• Despite received wisdom suggesting his game had been upset by his attempts to learn a draw (a move that admittedly did hamper him at The Masters, adding weight to such claims) the 26-year-old has missed just one cut outside of the majors all year, at the KLM Open. He's racked up top 20s with regularity, to such an extent that - in terms of world ranking points - only Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Webb Simpson have actually been better.
  
  So to dismiss Kaymer as a has-been, a failure, a disappointment? Foolish. If anything, his win in Shanghai should only remind us that he is as well-placed as anyone to become golf's next multi-major winner.

Yet hundreds of journalists have steamed in to preach on the matter, despite having (at best) second-hand knowledge of the circumstances. Despite this, there have still been remarkably few attempts to put the incident in any sort of context - something one suspects would almost certainly not be the case had it been an English player or caddie who made the offending comment, or at least someone the media has a more favourable opinion of.

The timing of the incident has caused further complications. The WGC-HSBC Champions is sanctioned by both the European Tour and PGA Tour but not really run by either, leading to a telling leadership vacuum as the story hit. Neither tour wanted to pass comment too soon, leading to a joint statement only emerging after the tournament had concluded - an unsatisfactory compromise that allowed nearly two days of wanton speculation.

Any other week, it is tempting to say Williams' apology and the relevant tour's statement on the matter would have been rushed through much sooner, in a much more orchestrated attempt to end the discussion before it really got out of hands. But that is not to say they can remotely be blamed - this is still Williams' mess.

Nevertheless, he deserves a fair hearing. For starters, there seems to be a lack of consideration of whether or not Williams is actually a racist - or someone who made one ill-advised comment that came out as racist.

On reviewing more than just the last week's evidence, it seems hard to believe Williams actually harbours such views. After all, he caddied for Woods for 12 years - diligently following the orders handed down before eventually building up a relationship that transcended their course dynamic. The two socialised outside of competition, and both ended up being best man at their respective weddings (although this might say as much about Woods' sheltered existence as anything else).

If Williams truly harboured racist opinions throughout all that, then he is guilty of being a quite breathtaking hypocrite - admittedly not as bad a crime, but a significant stain against his character nonetheless. Indeed, if he was happy to bury his own beliefs (presumably) because it benefited him financially to do so, then ultimately that must only render any of his other core beliefs utterly meaningless.

If all his beliefs can be changed depending on the highest bidder, then ultimately it means he is beholden to just one - the power of money.

It's worth remembering the oft-parodied excuse of the racist: "Some of my best friends are black." Well, until a few months ago that was literally the case for Williams. But their break-up since has been unsavoury to say the least, and that has probably influenced proceedings.

Greg Norman, the two-time major champion who had Williams on his bag earlier in the New Zealander's career, defended his former charge - and then hit on what might be the crux of the matter, the acrimonious manner in which Williams and Woods' relationship has dissolved.

"We've all made stupid comments at stupid times, unfortunately his stupid comment became global news and I know he probably regrets it," Norman said. "Because of the temperature of what was going on between the two of them, anything that was said was going to exacerbate that feeling. I hope it gets resolved."

Race is always an uncomfortable subject for golf, the sport that has a history to rival almost any other of excluding minorities. We like to think things have changed over the years but the cold light of day does not give a great deal of evidence to back that assertion - other than Woods the only 'black' player on the PGA Tour this year was the young rookie Joseph Bramlett, who failed to retain his card.

Just as Augusta National (host of The Masters) still resolutely refuses to allow female members, so black players have so far failed to penetrate the PGA Tour. Golf might not be racist, but it is certainly struggling to get noticeably more inclusive. Race rows do it little credit.

Yet it's important to remember how serious it is to brand someone a racist in this day and age.

Can we truly do so based on one comment, made at a boisterous event and with little reliable context to place it? If Williams should be exiled from the game for what amounts to the use of one word, is it not hypocritical that we continue to go to The Masters every year - a tournament whose co-founder, Clifford Roberts, once said, "As long as I'm alive, golfers will be white, and caddies will be black"?

Is it not hypocritical that we still allow Fuzzy Zoeller (who made a racially-charged comments about Woods after he won at Augusta in 1997 - words he later claimed were light-hearted and in no way racist) to play in any competitive format? Why is leniency shown in those instances but not in the case of Williams? Because no-one likes him?

If that is the case, if we are discriminating based on our personal opinion of a man's character, then we are not as different to Williams as we would like to think.

Williams is an eminently dislikeable person, of that much we can be almost certain. Similarly, we can be pretty confident that he is not the brightest club in the bag (so to speak), either. But put those ingredients together and you don't automatically have a racist - it is still a huge leap to make.

For once, perhaps we should follow Woods - and not make that leap. The one person that knows Steve Williams best is also the one person he has racially abused - and yet he is still saying Williams isn't a racist.

Shouldn't that count for something?

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