Scott brushes off caddie's Tiger comments

Former Masters champion Adam Scott has brushed aside questions about his caddie Steve Williams who said he felt like a "slave" to Tiger Woods in his controversial autobiography published this week.

Williams parted with Woods in 2011 after helping him win all but one of his 14 major titles.

He then teamed up with Scott, but since last year has been semi-retired with an agreement to work for 10 events a year with the Australian.

The caddie, once ranked as New Zealand's richest sportsman while he worked for Woods, wrote in the book released on Monday that he also felt tainted by the sex scandal involving the golfing superstar.

"I haven't read it," Scott said of the book after he shot a poor opening 75 to be 12 shots off the lead in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai on Thursday. "Must be in the mail still."

Williams was carrying Scott's bag at last week's CIMB Classic in Malaysia but is absent from Shanghai this week.

The New Zealander claims he was hounded by the media after Woods' sex scandal hit the headlines in 2009, but was still determined to stick by his friend.

"For months on end, my life was absolutely miserable," he says in "Out of the Rough", written with journalist Michael Donaldson.

Another part of the book says: "One thing that really pissed me off was how he would flippantly toss a club in the general direction of the bag, expecting me to go over and pick it up. I felt uneasy about bending down to pick up his discarded club - it was like I was his slave."

Scott stuck by Williams after the outburst four years ago, going on to win the US Masters in 2013 and rising to world number one in 2014. It looks like he will again.

"I don't know exactly what's in the book. As I said, I haven't read it," added Scott. "I think everyone knows probably what to expect."