SUNRIVER —

Usually during the summer months Steve Williams is busy checking yardages and pumping up his golfer, who just happens to be the most famous athlete in the world.

But Williams, famous himself for being the caddie of Tiger Woods, has had a different kind of summer since Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open on a bad knee in June.

That knee, of course, put Woods on the shelf for the remainder of the year. And it has given Woods’ caddie more free time than a college kid without a summer job.

It is a strange state for Williams, who is usually at his busiest during the summer.

Asked when he last took a summer off, the native of New Zealand replies with a hearty laugh: “Ah, never.”

Williams is friendly as he chats with me in a quiet corner of the main lodge at Sunriver Resort.

Williams usually makes time for about four or five weeks a year at his summer home in Sunriver — where he stations himself during the meat of the golf season.

This year, Williams has spent most of his summer in Central Oregon with his wife, Kirsty, and their son, Jett. He has been working on his golf game for the first time in years, as well as on his Steve Williams Foundation (which helps junior golfers in New Zealand) and his car-racing team.

Williams has also made time to play periodically in the Sunriver Resort Men’s Club. “It’s fun,” he says of the weekly golf competition.

“It’s quite amazing how time goes quickly,” Williams says. “I have been spending a lot of time organizing stuff for my foundation, and then I’ve spent a little bit of time organizing my race program. I actually sat down and designed my new paint scheme for my race cars.”

Adds Williams, who was a 2 handicap at age 13: “I actually have done a little bit of (golf) practice. … Not as much as my son, though. My little boy likes to go to the range by himself. He’s gone down with other people. So it’s been a bit of fun.”

The 44-year-old, an avid runner, is a man in remarkably good shape thanks to an extensive workout regime. Despite a reputation for occasional run-ins with fans and photographers on the golf course, he is easygoing and likeable.

And Williams seems humble enough, offering only a clue when asked about his best-seat-in-the-world view of the most accomplished golfer of this generation.

Still, he knows he has hit a caddie’s version of the Powerball.

“I could never have dreamed that 10 years later (after considering retirement while working for Raymond Floyd), I’d be caddying for a guy that’s put together a record like Tiger,” says Williams, who first worked for Woods in 1999. “It’s pretty remarkable.”

Williams, who occasionally races at the Madras Speedway when he has the time, is passionate about two things: auto racing and golf, and in that order.

Asked about his hobbies aside from racing and golf, he says: “I like to run, and I am very keen on fitness. But racing and golf take up a huge amount of my time. Those are my two main interests.”

He owns a New Zealand race team, driving Saloon and Super Saloon stock cars on dirt raceways, and was the New Zealand Super Saloon champion for 2005-06.

Williams’ unexpected wealth of free time will end this month when he heads back to New Zealand, where he still lives for about eight months each year.

“I’ve had a little time to tinker with a few things,” Williams says. “Once September rolls around, that’s when the race season starts in New Zealand, and then time will just go by. You race on every possible week, so time goes by quickly.”

Central Oregon seems an unlikely place to find the most recognizable caddie in the world. It is about 3,000 miles from Woods’ home in Orlando, Fla., and a half a world away from Williams’ homeland.

But actual distance not withstanding, Sunriver is closer to New Zealand for Williams than most would assume.

“I came here for a holiday to Sunriver about 20 years ago,” Williams says. “I thought the place was so much like some areas of New Zealand. So I thought this would be a great place to spend some time.”

An intensity is recognizable behind Williams’ bright white smile, an intensity that seems to fit well with Woods, whose steely demeanor on the links is well-chronicled.

The two are close friends, partly because of that shared competitiveness.

“Tiger and I both think alike and both have the same kind of work ethic and the same desires,” Williams says. “He’s seen me in my sport (auto racing) and how I operate, which is probably very similar to himself and how he operates in golf.”

Williams is thought to be the best-compensated caddie on the PGA Tour, but he hasn’t thought seriously about retirement from Woods’ golf bag, yet.

Instead, the Kiwi is content to play his supporting-actor role as history unfolds before his eyes.

“Certainly, I think at some point in time I would certainly look at maybe not caddying every particular week he plays,” Williams says. “In the future, sometime that will happen so I can concentrate more on my racing.

“But right now, you know, why would you? It’s great to watch.”