Caddy Steve Williams admits maybe he could have used a word other than "slave" regarding his time working with Tiger Woods.
But Williams is disappointed publishers of his memoir highlighted the reference in publicity excerpts for his book.
The New Zealander has been ridiculed for writing the slave comment in his biography, when he made millions of dollars during his long and enormously successful stint as Woods' caddy.
"The response is predictable," Williams told AAP on Thursday.
"It's a bit disappointing that the publishers chose that one piece of the book, I don't agree it should have been used.
"That is one word, one sentence, out of a whole book."
Williams said publishers didn't tell him they would use the controversial paragraph in excerpts released this week from his biography Out Of The Rough.
He wrote: "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."
Williams told AAP the slave reference was "one word that could have been changed" when writing his memoir.
The New Zealander caddied for Woods for 13 years, winning 13 major championships and 72 tournaments worldwide together, and attended each other's weddings before a bitter split in 2011.
"You know it's going to come to an end at some stage but my only regret with Tiger is the way it ended," Williams said.
"I don't have any regrets. I'm just disappointed the way it ended - not that it ended because in this line of work 90 per cent of positions, maybe even more, it does come to an end.
"To caddy for a guy that is one of the greatest players to have played the game ... was an absolute treat, no two-ways about it."
The split came after revelations of Woods' extra-marital affairs in 2009 - Williams said the golfer didn't speak to him for four months after that news broke.
Williams didn't know of the affairs and his wife was good friends with Woods' then-wife, straining their working relationship until the golfer fired the caddy in July 2011.
"It's disappointing that it did end and the way it ended because I truly believed this guy could break Jack's record," Williams said, referring to Jack Nicklaus' benchmark of 18 major tournament victories.
Woods has won 14 majors but none since his 2008 US Open triumph - though Williams wasn't yet writing off the golfer's chances of surpassing Nicklaus.
"You would never put anything past the guy," he said.
"I have never seen a guy so motivated, so driven, to win tournaments.
"But he's going to be 40 this December, time is not on his side. And he has had a lot of injuries.
"But he has a phenomenal work ethic ... so nothing would surprise me with him."
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