FanHouse Steve Williams

Tiger Woods has never been one to hold his emotions in. When it isn't a full-out fist pump after a clutch birdie, it's a run-after-the-golf-ball point or a double-pump to the sky. It can also be frustration ... lots and lots of frustration.

On Friday at the Duetsche Bank Championship, his frustration finally got the best of him. Standing on the fifth hole, Tiger blocked his driver right of the fairway into an unplayable lie that would eventually lead to a bogey. Usually in these instances, Tiger gives us the one-handed release of the club or the complete drop behind him. This was different. This was sheer meltdown. Tiger flung the golf club into some wasteland area 30 yards in front of him, leaving it up to Steve Williams to pry it out of the thick grass.

Video via Wei Under Par after the jump.

Update: YouTube was forced to pull the video due to copyright claims by the PGA Tour. If it becomes available again, we will post the new code so you can enjoy the gas-friendly video.

Anyone watching CBS' coverage of the Buick Open yesterday was treated to what sounded like a Tiger Woods fart on the 18th hole. As you can hear/see/tell from the video below, Woods and caddie Steve Williams are waiting for Tiger to take his shot when there's a loud, flatulent noise, which came after Tiger is seen taking an awkward stance on the fairway. Now, to me, it sounds like iFart, the iPhone application that lets you play pooting noises from your phone. But Tiger and Stevie start laughing hysterically, so maybe the world's greatest golfer really did just rip one. Your thoughts? (Video via Awful Announcing)

You'll hear golf historians complain about the current British Open venue, citing the Royal and Ancient's decision to avoid hosting an Open there since 1994, when, really, most say the complaints have to do with Turnberry's poor location in terms of travel. (The course is accessible by a single road that makes you feel like you're driving down a narrow alleyway). You'll also hear people call Turnberry overrated and too easy, and they'll point to the Duel in the Sun as an example.

Tiger Woods, who has never played Turnberry until this week, wants people to understand something. Turnberry ain't that easy. He even admits it.

"It's a lot more difficult than people are letting on,'' Woods said.

The U.S. Open is a formality at this point; Tiger Woods is winning it -- just like he did in 2002, the first time the tournament came to Bethpage Black -- because, well, Shane Bacon says so. Alright, maybe that's overstating it, but Tiger now has two wins this season, which, historically, is like giving him a four-stroke lead before he steps on the first tee. It doesn't help the field.

On Monday, hours after going to town on Muirfield Village, Woods headed to Farmington, NY to play a practice round at Bethpage Black. That's not atypical -- players routinely check out the major venues weeks, and sometimes months, before the tournament.

During tournament weeks, Tiger Woods is usually the first guy on the course during practice rounds. He likes to avoid the crowds, get in his work, and get out before the gawkers, autograph seekers, and would-be targets of Steve Williams' wrath descend on the course.

Well, nothing changed on Wednesday at Quail Hollow, site of this week's PGA Tour event -- Tiger still went off early. The only difference: his pro-am playing partner was Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, and the galleries following the group made it look like the final round of a major.

The birdie putt was said to be 15 feet. In truth, the ball exploded from the 72nd green at Bay Hill and shot through the consciousness of every golfer not named Tiger Woods, torturing the collective psyche of the so-called competition. If there were any doubts that Woods would be less than his indomitable self after knee surgery, his final-hole victory in the Florida darkness zapped the uncertainty like radiation treatment, leaving rivals with a familiar tsunami of dread.

Which might explain why Woods, healthier and happier than at any point in his epic career, dared to venture Tuesday into the same rare territory he did a year ago. He was asked again, in the interview room at Augusta National, if he could win the Grand Slam this year. Without hesitation, he said yes.

It was at the 1999 Bay Hill Invitational that Tiger Woods and Steve Williams first worked together. Woods wound up cashing a 56th-place check that week ($5,625 -- woo hoo!), and it would be his worst finish at Arnold Palmer's event.

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This weekend, Shane Bacon will be out at the J Golf Phoenix LPGA International caddying for one of the pros on the LPGA Tour. You can follow him daily with his Caddie Tales.

If you had a big tournament coming up and were going to go out searching for a non-caddie to caddie for you, picking yours truly probably wouldn't be the worst idea. At least that's what I told LPGA golfer Erica Blasberg.

I have played a lot of tournaments with buddies, bosses and even my dad on the bag. Since I was a 14-year-old heading to Wichita Falls, Okla. for the Texas-Oklahoma Junior Golf Tournament, caddying was something I was immersed in.

It's like a game of Clue, only the players are a bunch of "friends" of a golf star that may or may not be returning to the course over the next few weeks. Like, "I'll take Tiger Woods, with a 4-iron, at Doral."

Now Tiger's caddie Steve Williams is the latest to chime in on when Mr. Woods will be gracing us with his golfing presence, telling a New Zealand television station that Woods is "a few weeks" from returning to the PGA Tour.

I just want to hug someone. Can I hug you? Please? Just one? It's the Christmas season, and hugging is necessary when you are very happy about something during this time of year. Haven't you see Elf, you freak?

Tiger Woods, the best athlete in the world and basically the reason I still get up in the morning, announced on his website that he is hitting golf balls again, and is right on pace for the Masters. The Masters!!!!!!!! YES! I am actually so happy that I look like the Joker right now, but with fewer scars.

"I'm actually stronger in my leg than I think I've ever been," Tiger said in a press conference today. "As far as hitting full shots, (I've just started) the last couple weeks. So obviously I haven't progressed too far into the bag...It's fun to actually get outside and start swinging again and working on my short game. I've chipped and putted for a while, but as far as making bigger swings, I've actually just started."

In the press conference, Tiger went on to say that his intention is to play a few events before the Masters, but he can't say that is how it is going to go down.

He also dug a little deeper into the Phil Mickelson-Steve Williams issue, saying, "What ended up happening is I communicated with Phil, and we have discussed it. I talked to Stevie about it, and he feels bad, what happened."

Oh, and as far as the player of the year award goes, which went to British Open and PGA Champion Padraig Harrington?