There are pressing questions about someone who plays golf and is named Tiger and who’s surname is not Woods.
“Yeah, so I’m not sure why my parents decided to name me after Tiger Woods,” says Robin Tiger Williams, who is going to have to tell this story over and over again if his career keeps climbing on its current trajectory.
“My Dad was a mad keen golfer. I got in the game because he played. I was born in 2001 while Tiger Woods was the biggest thing on the planet. My Dad was a big Tiger fan. Actually, he was more of a cricket player and he wanted to name me after Sachin Tendulkar, and I’m not sure how that would have been. I’m glad they went with Tiger!
“I’ve asked them this question a lot of times and they are still not sure why they picked Tiger. Especially in the little community we’re from, just outside of Stellenbosch. The people in the village, when we were up there in the church when I was getting baptized, they said, when they said my name, Tiger Williams, there was all this commotion, asking why they were naming the kid after an animal.
“And it just happened to work out that I played golf and fell in love with the sport. It’s just a mad coincidence that it happened. But I’m really honoured to be named after him. I don’t see it as a burden or any pressure. And if I can emulate at least 0.1 percent of the stuff he did on the golf course, then I’ll be a very happy man.”
As a 17-year-old youngster, he got to meet Woods, too. “I understand now that expression when they say it’s weird to meet your heroes and idols in real life. Obviously I’d only seen him on TV and on YouTube but to see him physically in front of me and have a 20-second conversation with him is a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
“It was at the Ryder Cup in 2018 in Paris. I was part of the Junior Ryder Cup team, and we got to play a few of the holes there in like a little competition between the Americans and the Europeans in the under-18s. And then we got to meet all the players. Everybody’s standing in a line and they put me at the end of the line to meet him last. They didn’t tell me about it, but it was a whole thing and then the video came out and there has been lots of views and stuff.”
One video that he will give lots of views of his own to will be the one where he putted out of the fringe of the 17th hole at St Francis Links in the final round of the DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned SDC Championship.
He had a two-shot lead for what would have been a maiden international title as he hit his tee shot there, and found a horrible stance for his attempt to emerge from the greenside bunker left. He blasted his bunker shot right over the green, and elected to putt through the rough off the fringe. An admittedly difficult downhill chip would still have been a better option, leaving him likely to drop just one stroke. In the end, he made a double, and then lost in a play-off to American Jordan Gumberg.
“To be honest I’ve been thinking about that hole for a long time now,” he recalls, “thinking what I could have done differently and I have no regrets about the way I played it. I hit the tee-shot exactly as I wanted to and the wind just picked up and we ended up in the bunker. We were even thinking of taking an unplayable lie it was so bad. But there’s that big back slope behind the flag. So I was trying to just either hit the flag with the bunker shot or have it get to the top of the slope and then start rolling back. It finished maybe a foot too far. So I knew that that next shot was gonna be really difficult because all I needed to do, was to get the ball to move a foot in front of me and then it has enough momentum to get all the way to the hole.
“So a chip shot would have rolled too much, it would have probably gone like 30 feet past the flag so the putt was the only option I had. As I hit it, there was a little bit of grass in between the ball and the putter face and it came off kind of dead and then obviously it came up short. Then, because it finished on the fringe and we could do placing that day, as I went to put the tee in the ground to place the ball, it actually moved forward. That’s how close it was to actually making it all the way down to the flag. Any little bit too much speed, it’s past the flag, and I’m still making a five anyway.”
It took him so close to what would have been a wonderful victory, but he’d had a win already on the Sunshine Tour and he’s having a great season as he dominates the rookie of the year standings.
“It’s been amazing,” he says. “I started my pro career off in UK on the Europro Tour, which to be honest, didn’t really feel like a pro tour. And then I spoke to a few friends of mine that came over to play the Sunshine Tour and they were raving about it, about this is the best tour for getting to the next level. You’re playing three-, four-day events on amazing courses, you get TV coverage, it actually feels like a professional tour.
“I came over and it blew my mind, you know, with scheduling and everything. I mean the product that the Sunshine Tour has developed over all these years, but especially now, is unbelievable. They give us the best opportunity to showcase our skills. The sponsors and everybody involved in the Sunshine Tour do an incredible job to basically make our job as easy as possible to get to that next level.
“The tournaments we play and the amount we play, if you can compete and win at the Sunshine Tour level then I feel like you can move on to that next step. And with all the co-sanctioned events that they have with the Challenge Tour and the DP World Tour, you then get a chance to test your game against those guys as well. So it’s unbelievable really.”
He’s taken his chances with both hands, and not only is he leading the rookie of the year stakes, he’s also lying second on the Order of Merit.
“So the top three in the Order of Merit get DP World Tour cards,” he says. “They’re not full cards but pretty good card that you can still play your into the big events for the 2025 season. So that’s going to be the next goal.
“I will obviously just ask for invites to Challenge Tour and DP World Tour events for the rest of the 2024 season until about probably September, October when they get to their Rolex Series events. I got some good points from the SDC at St Francis and I can also earn my card by getting some more good finishes in other tournaments.
“But if not, then I’ll come back to South Africa in October and then play the winter events and then come for all the co-sanctioned events again. But the main goal is just to finish in that top three. That would be an amazing thing for me on my CV. So in my rookie season, finishing the top three on the order of merit, getting a DP World Tour card and all that, moving to the next step, that’s my plan at the moment.”
With dual United Kingdom and South African citizenship, he’s able to feel at home locally and abroad as he works his way into his career.
“My parents still live in the UK, but I’ve got lots of family down in Cape Town,” he says. “So in between events, I just go down to Cape Town, spend time there, practice there, and then come back up. Most of the time we’re in Joburg, and I just come up and travel to the events. At the end of the Sunshine Tour season, I’ll go back to the UK, do all my practice over there.
“I’m torn because I feel like I’m both. I am South African, but I’m also British at the same time. I grew up on both sides. Most of my golf career so far was spent over in the UK, playing a lot of junior and amateur golf. And then most of my professional career was spent playing in South Africa. So, yeah, I am torn, you could say that.”
We’ll claim this Tiger as South African right now.
