Legendary caddie Billy Foster has seen just about everything on the golf course, but his greatest story comes from inside a bathroom.
These days, the Yorkshireman is best-known for his work with Matt Fitzpatrick, after both men won their first major title at the 2023 US Open.
Over the years, Foster has worked with some of the game’s greats – Seve Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia, Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, and even Tiger Woods.
Over a glittering 43-year career, Foster has been a part of 45 professional victories, making him one of the most iconic caddies in all of golf.
But besides being a wizard at selecting clubs and reading greens, the 61-year-old is also a master of storytelling.
And there is no better story than his interaction with 15-time major winner Woods at the 2002 Ryder Cup, when Foster was caddying for Clarke.
Speaking to the DP World Tour in 2019, Foster recalled: “First morning, first match was Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn playing Tiger Woods and Paul Azinger.
“So I got to the putting green at 7.45am, 8am is the first tee time. I said to Darren, ‘Your flock of seagulls are flapping. I need to go for a Tom Kite. I’ll be back in a minute’. So I went to go to the toilets.
“So I’ve sat down in cubicle number one, trollies around the ankles, just about to give it the full-thrust morning glory.
“And I look to the side, full reverse, no toilet paper. So I’ve come out of the cubicle, walked straight across the corridor. And there’s Davis Love III’s caddie Cubbie [John Burke].
“So I sit down. 20 rolls of toilet paper behind me. No problem. Next minute, spikes on the bathroom floor.
“I hear, ‘Morning Cubbie, morning Tiger’. Bang, he’s gone in the one where I’ve just come from.
“Well, I’m crying now because I’ve just got this vision in my head of Tiger Woods walking up the fifth, like John Wayne just got off his horse.
“So I come out and as I’m walking past his cubicle, it’s now six minutes to tee off, I hear this little sigh. He realises there’s no toilet paper. And I thought, you know what? I can’t do it to him.
“So I walked back to my cubicle, rolled off about 20 sheets, folded them up, got down on my hands and knees and went under his toilet door, said, ‘Whoever’s in there, you might be needing this’.
“And as he grabbed it, I went, ‘Europe, 1UP!’ And walked out. And sure enough, we beat them 1UP.
“He came out with the biggest smile on his face. Obviously, I told everybody on the putting green.
“I said, ‘You owe me, Tiger Woods’. And he held his hands up and said, ‘Billy Foster, I owe you big time’.”
Woods was truly at the peak of his powers in the summer of 2002, having won six of the last 12 major championships.
It was perhaps the greatest prolonged spell of golf the game has ever seen.
Foster and Team Europe got one over on Woods that weekend, beating Team USA by three points.
But three years later, the Englishman and the American would join forces.
Ahead of the 2005 Presidents Cup, Woods’ regular caddie Steve Williams needed a week off for the birth of his child.
Woods asked Clarke if he could borrow Foster – and the iconic caddie is convinced his antics at The Belfry got him the gig.
Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2023, Foster said: “I swear that’s why I got the job.
“Not because I’m a good caddie, but because I was the s***house saviour.”
Foster recently decided to take a step back from caddying, announcing his decision to share Fitzpatrick’s bag with fellow veteran Daniel Parratt for the 2025 season.
The master orator recently appeared on Sky Sports’ coverage of the Phoenix Open, suggesting that he could be moving towards a punditry role.
And if his story about Woods is anything to go by, golf fans are in for a treat.
