Colin Byrne/Caddie's Diary: So Tiger didn't win his third Masters in a row and the statistic of the Great One not winning from behind at the Masters stays intact. The fact that he made the cut at all from the right trees on his last hole - the ninth - was a testament to his tenacity, as if anyone in the Augusta caddie shack doubted for a nano-second that he would not get up and down from the green-side trap to make the cut.

Despite all the caddie shack bravado, no one gathered around the caddie room TV suggested he would miss, as they tried to figure out what the cut was going to be. Tigers was on plus five, that naturally was the cut.

Arnold Palmer was towelling down his ego in the locker room after clocking up a cricket score for his two rounds in his 49th Masters. Someone suggested Tiger, having just made the cut on the mark, was not going to win this year. Arnie vehemently disagreed.

"He'll probably still win the darn thing," he growled. He made a stunning early charge for the Green Jacket in his third round .

Tiger made two perfect swings down the second in his final round and produced a two-putt birdie. The Sunday charge had begun. Or so Steve Williams his caddie had assumed. The tee was moved forward by over 20 yards on the already relatively innocuous 350-yard par four third hole. There are no easy holes in Augusta, every one is a potential double bogey. The options from this tee position were a 258-yard carry over the left traps or a 210-yard lay up short of them. Of course you could hit the ball next to the bunkers, and to the right side of the fairway preferably, for the left pin position. There is really no right and wrong way to play the hole . What a caddie works on in these situations is empathy, you try to feel what the player wants to do. Tiger can never be accused of being timid nor stupid. But being behind sub-consciously makes you think aggressively; you need to be flexible in this game, sometimes you need to change your game plan .

If you are thinking of trying to make a dash for the line, the obvious instinct is to hit driver. Tiger could have carried the traps with a three wood, but it would have left him an awkward distance to that green and particularly that pin. I assume the thinking on Steve William's part was that he wanted his man close to the green on an up-slope rather than with a 50-yard shot off a down-slope which would have been virtually impossible to stop on the green even with the deftness of his boss's touch.

Sometimes it is frightening to contemplate the influence you can have over a player on the golf course as a bag-toter. The game is obviously psychological, especially during the last round of a Major. How many times has Steve suggested an aggressive strategy that paid off in past events? Did he make the right call or was he lucky? If Tiger had made a good swing with the driver on the third maybe Williams would have been the hero, instigating the pivotal moment in the final round. I suspect that even with his mystical and ever threatening presence Tiger was just not playing well enough to conquer Augusta this year. It didn't really matter what Williams said, he was just trying to do his job.

The deafening silence in the caddie shack as the loopers watched him sink his cut-making putt on Saturday morning betrayed the fear and almost capitulation that Woods instills in the other caddies if not all their players.

A loud roar of hope would have billowed from the caddie room if he had missed the cut putt. Such is the intimidating presence of the world's greatest golfer. If Tiger misses a cut you know you have a much better chance of winning .

In Wood's disappointment at his final round performance he temporarily passed the blame onto his caddie. Being the true professional that he is, he assumed ultimate responsibility for the decision made on the third tee. "In the end it's the player's call and I made a mistake. Also I didn't make a good swing."

The caddie advises and the player decides. It is our job as caddies to present our players with the relevant options. The old adage of only being as good as the guy who is hitting the shot is so true. We do have a large input into how a player approaches the golf course. Increasingly we are working as close-knit partnerships.

Our players obviously heed the information that we impart to them. But if we have too much of a negative influence by passing on this "knowledge" then we won't be employed for long. Does this mean that Steve William's job is on the line? I don't think so.