Mike "Fluff" Cowan vs. Steve Williams

Talk about night and day, and I'm not even referring to anything Cowan or Williams themselves have done. Here are a few random observations of these two PGA Tour loopers:

As we all obviously know, Tiger Woods entered the PGA Tour in 1996 with the eyes of the world on him because of a great deal of hype and expectation. At that same time, we were also introduced to a lovable gentleman that looked eerily like a walrus with sunglasses: Mike "Fluff" Cowan, Tiger's caddy. However, as we all also know, Tiger and Fluff parted ways in 1999 due to disagreement and conflicts of interest (or, at least that is what we were told). So, Tiger went with Raymond Floyd's old caddy (Steve Williams) and Fluff agreed to help Michelle Wie and later Jim Furyk.

Fast-forward to modern day, the careers of these two caddies have been drastically different, albeit both successful. For example, most recently Jim Furyk has not won a PGA Tour event in more than 2 years. Tiger has won 10 in that same span, including one Major (the 2008 US Open). Both caddies have also had substantially different financial situations: in the last 2 years Williams has taken home approximately $1.5 million (and that's just going off of his 10% caddy share) while Fluff has pocketed roughly $488,000.

Watching the two caddies work is also a treat, as was the case at the BMW Championship on Sunday. For example, Williams was constantly checking the wind, yardages, and conversing with Tiger before almost every single shot. Fluff seemed to have a more passive approach towards his player, allowing Furyk to make most of the decisions (or so it seemed) for himself.

Finally, and perhaps the biggest difference between the two caddies is the fact that one (Williams) will forever be in the spotlight while the other (Fluff) is able to go about his profession without the public eye watching. Something tells me this is exactly how Fluff wanted it.