One of the most controversial coaching changes was between Butch Harmon and Tiger Woods. When Tiger Woods decided to leave Butch Harmon at the end of 2003 there was a lot of speculation if Tiger really could be his own coach. Could he really figure out every time he had a swing flaw? After a successful year winning three times Tiger decided through a friend of his Mark O'Meara that he should contact Hank Haney to help him with his golf swing. Hank was very successful with Mark O'Meara winning two major championships in 1998. They began working with each other at the end of 2004 and saw some much needed swing changes that Tiger needed to fix.
Hank was a man who believed in having a certain plan with Tiger. He knew that he was working with the greatest player of all time and making sure he built a swing for Tiger that would still win golf tournaments was essential. So they created the plan and worked on Tiger staying higher through the driver and not dipping his head through the downswing. Tiger always had a trouble with the driver because of his power he always sacrificed accuracy. So Hank and Tiger would work countless hours on being able to control the driver better by hitting a fade off the tee. He would sacrifice distance but would eliminate the left side of the golf course, eliminating the big miss. Tiger always revered to his best driving season of 2000, but his golf swing then had a lot of torque to that left knee. Hank wanted to create a new move to help Tiger take the stress off that knee.
As time went on and Tiger was playing in golf tournaments, he began seeing the results winning six times in 2005 including the Masters and PGA Championship. The media was beginning to believe that Tiger was still able to win without the guidance of Butch Harmon. Tiger never really liked making a big spectacle about things, so at first he kept it quite about their relationship. Tiger stated that he asked Hank for his advice about his swing and how it could improve. After that season and the two major championship Tiger came out and said that him and Hank have been working together and is now his full time swing coach.
Working with the greatest player in the world and possibly of all time has its challenges all together. Always in the media wondering about the progress and pressure to win is hard. Both Hank and Tiger had a good professional relationship with each other and were able to win six major championships in six years together. Haney though always said although their professional relationship was good he wished he was able to have a better personal relationship with Tiger. Tiger has always been a little more reserved with new people at first until he knows and trusts you being in his inner circle. Tiger always trusted more of the older players on the PGA Tour such as Mark O'Meara and John Cook because they were there and knew Tiger since he was young. Although there were many days working for Tiger that were stressful, Hank really felt blessed to be there working with him. Looking back now Hank knew it was a once in a life time opportunity and he was so grateful to have been his coach.
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