In our part one book review last weekend of Hank Haney”s The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods, we focused upon the early years of the Woods-Haney relationship. Tiger wanted to be consistently atop golf”s leaderboards, even when he didn”t have his ”A” game, and he wanted to further develop his swing to put less stress on his injured left knee. After spending the 2004 season working closely on this common goal, Woods had a great 2005 campaign with six wins on the PGA Tour, including the Masters and the British Open.
The initial part of the 2006 season was a difficult one for Tiger as his father”s health took a turn for the worst. He finished third at the ”06 Masters with Phil Mickelson winning it. He then took time off to be at his dad”s bedside. Earl Woods passed away on May 3 and Tiger took an extended leave from the game, returning only to play in the 2006 U.S. Open in June.
However, Woods rebounded from his father”s death with renewed vigor, winning the British Open and the PGA Championship later that year. When the 2006 season came to a close, Tiger had accumulated two more major titles for a total of 12 career grand slam victories. He also won six other PGA Tour tourneys. It was more of the same in 2007 as Woods won the PGA, two World Golf victories, and a total of seven PGA Tour titles. He had been a professional for 12 years, had 13 majors and 14 World Golf titles to his name, and he was within striking distance of Jack Nickalus and his 18 career majors. He was 31 years old. In theory, his prime was ahead.
Yet 2007 was the beginning of a period in Woods” life where Haney took greater notice into the flaws of Tiger”s personality, both on and off the course. Haney knew from the start that Woods” “self-centeredness went with the territory. It was the quality of paying attention only to his own needs that was so central to his ability to win.” Handy added that “winning gave him permission to remain a flawed and in some ways immature person.” It concerned Haney that Woods was cheap and was a notoriously bad tipper. He was socially inept in social situations. When he finished dinner in a group setting, he would simply get up and leave. If others were at his house, he would often go to the refrigerator, get a snack like a Popsicle, eat it in front of the others, and never ask if anyone else wanted one. He contended that signing autographs was a waste of his precious and limited time.
Haney writes, “In retrospect, 2007 was when Tiger began to lose the joy of playing and began to look at his career as something he wanted to get over with sooner than later. Tiger was closer to the end of his greatness than he was to the beginning. In hindsight, I think Tiger did too.” Tiger told Haney at that time, “I”m satisfied with what I”ve done in my career.”
Woods became enamored with the thought of being a Navy SEAL during that time. In 2006, just 18 days before the U.S. Open, he went on a three-day parachuting session that entailed 10 jumps per day. In 2007 he went on six SEAL training sessions that included conditioning, heavyweight lifting, parachuting and hand-to-hand combat. It was during a SEAL Kill House operation, a training session that simulates urban warfare, that Tiger hurt his knee “pretty bad,” according to one of the SEALs who participated in the operation. Tiger told Haney that he wanted to give it all up to join the SEALs and become golf”s version of Pat Tillman. Woods was disappointed when he learned that he was three years beyond the SEAL maximum age limit of 28 years.
With Woods playing out his SEAL fantasy, Haney felt that Tiger wasn”t spending enough time on his golf game. Haney writes that “if I had to point to one reason Tiger won only two majors with me in our last three years versus the four he won over two years prior, it was work ethic.” Haney also showed concern that Tiger had a new tendency to interrupt their practice sessions by talking on his cell phone and texting, something he had never done before.
Woods finished second in the 2008 Masters. Immediately following its conclusion, he had ACL surgery on his damaged left knee. While the doctors advised Woods to rehab his knee over time, Tiger ignored their advice as well as Haney”s and began strenuous workouts. Woods dearly wanted to play in the U.S. Open that June at San Diego”s Torrey Pines, the site of his World Junior and San Diego Open victories.
As history would have it, Tiger won at Torrey Pines in dramatic style. He birdied the final hole at Torrey on Sunday evening to tie Rocco Mediate and after finishing tied during Monday”s 18-hole playoff, he proceeded to win the first sudden-death hole to capture his 14th major title. However, he had won the Open with a re-injured ACL as well as two stress fractures in his left leg. Yet Haney writes “history might prove that he was never again able to dig as deep as he did at Torrey Pines.”
Woods missed the remainder of the 2008 season. In early January 2009, he hurt his right Achilles during Olympic-style lifts. While rehabbing his Achilles, Haney writes that Woods relied upon controversial Canadian doctor Anthony Galea to assist him recover through the blood spinning process. Haney knew that Galea visited Woods at least four times during February and March of 2009.
While the 2009 season would have been considered a success by most touring pro”s standards with six wins, more than $10 million in earnings, and a No. 1 spot on the money list, Tiger was unhappy and felt incomplete. He finished sixth at the Masters, sixth at the U.S. Open and stunningly missed the cut at the British Open at Turnberry. He then lost to Y.E. Yang over the final three holes of the PGA Championship.
In early November of 2009, Woods went Down Under and won the Australian Masters. Haney watched the tournament on television and stated that he was appalled by Tiger”s bad behavior. Haney thought to himself, “what a troubled guy.” Later that month, over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Woods hit a fire hydrant outside his home at Isleworth and he became known worldwide for something other than his golf game.
Next week: The conclusion of The Big Miss.
