Over the past month, the most talked about piece of golf literature has been golf instructor Hank Haney”s tell-all book about his years working alongside Tiger Woods entitled, “The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods” (Crown Archetype, $26).
Haney was a well-known, high-priced golf teacher long before he connected with Tiger in March of 2004. He was known to tour professionals for his many years of work with two-time major champion Mark O”Meara. He was the golf coach at Southern Methodist University. He also ran golf academies and clinics for high-paying, high-handicap amateur golfers.
From his days prior to Stanford University through the turn of the century, Tiger Woods had worked closely with golf coach Butch Harmon, the son of the former Masters champ, Claude Harmon. Under Harmon”s watchful eye, Woods had won the 1997 Masters in a runaway, rebuilt his golf swing during the 1998 season, won the 1999 PGA Championship, and then, starting with the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, won all four majors consecutively through the 2001 Masters, a feat dubbed “The Tiger Slam.” Woods also won the 2002 Masters and U.S. Open for a total of eight major titles during a six-year time frame.
After his 2002 U.S. Open win at Bethpage, Woods started giving Harmon the cold shoulder, basically ignoring him when he attempted to work with the Great Striped One. Woods wants to constantly alter and tweak his swing while Harmon felt that Tiger should maintain what he had going for him, especially since he had those eight Grand Slam titles sitting in his trophy case. That issue was the genesis in Woods firing his swing coach officially in June of 2003. At the time, Woods contended that as an experienced professional golfer, he knew his swing better than anyone else and that he wouldn”t need the eyes of a golf instructor to get him through the midpoint of his golfing career. He also stated that if he ever got stuck with his swing development, he could rely upon O”Meara to help him out.
Tiger was winless in the majors during the 2003 season and he must have put some thought into that fact since the Grand Slam champions that year were Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel, all one-hit wonders. Working his way through his swing adjustments just wasn”t working out for Woods as the 2003 season came to a close.
On March 8, 2004, Woods started working with Hank Haney as his new golf instructor. Haney had grown up in the northwest Chicago suburbs and started golfing as a youngster at his parents” private club, Exmoor Country Club, a traditional 1914 Donald Ross design. Haney played on the golf team at the University of Tulsa and worked diligently on his game to the extent that he was named all-conference during his senior year. Having always wanted to be a teaching golf professional, Haney let his early career take that direction. He was greatly influenced by well-known golf instructor John Jacobs.
Haney had some unique and creative philosophies as a golf instructor. While the putting yips is a common fault among certain types of golfers, Haney contended that there was such a thing as full-swing or driver yips, an affliction that he felt resulted in the demise of the careers of Seve Ballesteros, Ian Baker-Finch and David Duval, all past major winners. Haney”s instructional cure for full-swing yips was to “radically alter technique so that new pathways to the brain are created.” To Haney”s way of thinking, that”s why variations such as the claw grip, the belly putter and other changes seem to work. In other words, it”s all in the head.
Haney had known Tiger for a number of years prior to their working together as golfer and coach. They first met when Tiger was a 17-year-old high school junior. Tiger was in Dallas and was staying with Hank and Kelli Kuehne, two of Haney”s more noted prot?g?s. Haney described Woods as standoffish during this initial encounter. He also crossed paths with Tiger when he was coaching SMU and Woods was playing college golf at Stanford.
When Woods and Haney first got together at Isleworth in March of 2004 prior to the start of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at nearby Orlando, Haney immediately conjectured that Tiger was going to be a difficult student to work with. “I was never going to be able to relax with Tiger Woods,” Haney wrote in the Big Miss. Tiger”s initial goal with Haney was very clear. Tiger stated, “I don”t want to just have a chance on weeks when I”m hot. I want to have a chance all the time.”
For the immediate moment, Tiger wanted Haney”s help in preventing him from getting “stuck” on his backswing, which resulted in his tendency to hit tee shots far off line to the right. I correlated this to the batter being unable to get around on the fastball, with the result being a long blast into the upper deck in foul territory. In baseball, it”s just a strike, whereas in golf you”re 40 yards off the fairway among the trees, out of bounds or in a water hazard. Haney contended that Woods “Played the driver with a lot of fear.”
Tiger”s other priority was to build a swing that would put less pressure on his damaged left knee. Haney knew Woods had previously complained to O”Meara that he had injured his left knee by following Butch Harmon”s advice to snap the left knee at the moment of impact to impart more distance on the ball. After the fact, Tiger was finger pointing, blaming his former coach for the extent of his knee injury.
Haney worked with Woods for two days during that initial season and came away from the experience contending that Tiger was a receptive student. Haney and Woods continued to work together through 2004, and although Woods didn”t find the winner”s circle for the remainder of the year, the feeling was mutual that the path they had embarked upon was one that was going in the right direction. And 2005 was the proof. Woods won the Masters in a playoff, captured the British Open at St. Andrews with five shots to spare, won World Golf events at Firestone and at Harding Park, and won regular tour events at San Diego and Doral. Woods was back after a three-year victory drought in majors and Woods was giving Haney credit for his new found successes.
Next week: Part two of The Big Miss.
