Tiger couldn't have been surprised a few weeks after the Masters by the comments from another ex-coach, Butch Harmon, who said his former pupil looked "robotic" and that he was playing "golf swing," not golf. Harmon wants the man who he helped win eight majors to "feel" his way around the course more, something more akin to the attitude that carried Bubba Watson to his first green jacket.
I was standing behind the Augusta National range on that Friday night after Tiger shot a miserable second-round, 3-over 75. I saw him hit dart after dart into a dark sky. His posture and takeaway didn't look any different than it had at Bay Hill. Obviously, with the golf swing we're dealing with, little subtleties aren't always easily perceptible to the naked eye. Woods shouldn't try to explain his poor performance through an examination of a few minor swing flaws. Tiger is too good for that. He's won too many discount golf clubs tournaments to make his swing bear the burden of his inconsistencies as a ball striker.
I know Foley wants this for Tiger. No good teacher worth his salt wants his player standing over the ball in a pressure situation with a million swing thoughts running through his head.
Perhaps the golf swing has become a convenient way to deflect attention from some of the larger issues in his life. During Masters week, I heard another reporter say of Woods: "It must be hard for him to play well carrying around all that anger."
Yet thanks to the PGA Tour, Woods has a tournament this week at Quail Hollow to try to make amends for his embarrassing performance at the Masters. He can answer all of his critics who say he's done or he can affirm the predictions of his believers who say he'll make it back to No. 1 in the world.
But as Garrison so astutely put it about jazz, it's time for Tiger to lay aside all the swing theory and learn how to play. Harmon said as much in a Wall Street Journal interview.
We probably won't ever know what's going on inside Tiger's head. His swing is as close as we might come to knowing the inner workings of his mind. When he's happy with his swing and winning tournaments, we can suppose, he's happy with his life. Right now that's a fleeting happiness, a tenuous hold on a game that took just two weeks to break down between Bay Hill and the Masters.
"If he ever asked me what I thought he needed to do, I'd tell him, look, go on the practice tee without anybody -- without me, without Sean, without Haney, without a camera, and start hitting golf shots," Harmon said. "Hit some high draws, some low draws, high TaylorMade RocketBallZ fairway wood fades, low fades, move the ball up and down, move it around; don't worry about how you do it and go back to feeling it again."
But as Garrison so astutely put it about jazz, it's time for Tiger to lay aside all the swing theory and learn how to play. Harmon said as much in a Wall Street Journal interview.
We probably won't ever know what's going on inside Tiger's head. His swing is as close as we might come to knowing the inner workings of his mind. When he's happy with his swing and winning tournaments, we can suppose, he's happy with his life. Right now that's a fleeting TaylorMade RocketBallZ Driver happiness, a tenuous hold on a game that took just two weeks to break down between Bay Hill and the Masters.
Even Jack Nicklaus, who has mostly praised the man trying to break his record of 18 majors, has questioned Tiger's mental game since the Masters.
Tiger has had great teachers, from his father, Earl Woods, to Rudy Duran to John Anselmo to Harmon to Haney to his present teacher, Foley. In their own ways they have all helped Tiger's progression as the best player of his era. There isn't a better student of the game than Tiger. He probably has forgotten more about the golf swing than most people ever learn about the mysteries of the game.
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