It is turning into the tackiest of sideshows, a childish batting to-and-fro of insults between one former and one present coach (though for how long, who knows?) of Tiger Woods.
From the moment that Hank Haney got his retaliation in first by “sacking” Woods after the Players’ Championship at Sawgrass last May, it seems that he cannot resist sniping from the sidelines. Some would call it bitter, others would call it defensive.
In the middle of what is a pretty volatile mix is Sean Foley, the present coach of Woods, who seems to have an opinion on most things and is certainly not too pleased at any suggestion - particularly from Haney - that he doesn’t really know what he is doing with the former world No.1’s swing.
And as is commonplace these days, much of the squabbling taking place is being conducted through Twitter. The former coach was quick to point out that Foley, a Canadian, had given an interview in which he discussed Woods in depth, the size of his own ego, and the shortcomings of Haney himself, who, let’s be fair, had a pretty decent track record with the player before he went off the rails.
Haney tweeted: “If you want to be entertained, go to Golf.com and read Sean Foley’s latest version of ripping Hank Haney. All I can say is, wow.”
Advertisement
In the interview, Foley is asked to defend himself against critics who say Woods is not improving quickly enough.
“There was nothing about what he was doing in his previous swing that made any sense to me,” he replied. Haney’s fault, then.
So, what, in simple terms, are you trying to get Tiger to do with his swing?
“Simplify it. Minimalist theory. Get rid of all the unnecessary pieces and get to the causes instead of trying to fix the effects.” So, that was Haney’s fault as well.
And on Haney’s insistence in an interview that he did not need to get to know Woods properly in order to work with him?
Advertisement
“Hank built most of his career around Tiger. I found most of that interview to be unprofessional. I don’t understand how, if you don’t get to know the person, you can teach them.” There we go again. It’s all Haney’s fault.
It led to a few hours of frantic tweeting from Haney, much of it banal, as was illustrated when one of his followers asked where the weight should be when hitting driver off the tee (yawn!). “I say about 50-50 is fine, but better check with Foley,” he replied. Oh, please.
Most surprising, is that Woods is allowing it. He has no control over Haney, but you might expect him to restrict the musings of Foley. After all, Butch Harmon was shown the door after leading him to No 1 in the world and watching over him while he accumulated the Tiger Slam - holding all four majors at the same time after winning the Masters in 2001.
Harmon went for claiming a little too much credit for Tiger’s success. Now it seems, the coaches that followed him are desperate not to claim credit for his failings. How times have changed.
Making waves
Advertisement
Spain’s Alvaro Quiros has a smile that could power the National Grid and a nice line in self-deprecation. Which is why he is making friends in the States. Asked on the eve of the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Doral how his short game compared to the great Severiano Ballesteros, he spoke of his countryman’s great hands then added: “I’m more of a bricklayer.” Nobody could have put it better.
Shifting sands
It was around five years ago that rumblings started to get louder on the LPGA Tour in the US over the coming dominance of the Asians in the women’s game. A couple of years earlier Jan Stephenson, the Australian veteran, even went so far as to suggest they were threatening the future of the tour.
“The Asians are killing our tour,” she said. “Their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak English. They rarely speak. We have two-day pro-ams where people are paying a lot of money to play with us, and they say ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’. Our tour is predominantly international and the majority of them are Asian. They’ve taken it over.”
She went on: “If I were commissioner, I would have a quota on international players and that would include a quota on Asian players. As it is, they’re taking American money. American sponsors are picking up the bill.
Advertisement
“There should be a qualifying school for Americans and a qualifying school for international players. I’m Australian, an international player, but I say America has to come first. Sixty per cent of the tour should be American, 40 per cent international.”
Stephenson’s fear, basically, was that interest in the women’s game in the US would wane and, more importantly, sponsors would start to disappear. Both things have come to pass, but who is to say that sponsors would not have started to pull out anyway in recessionary times? It has not helped, though, that 20 of the world’s top fifty players are from South Korea and only ten from the US. The world No 1, Yani Tseng, is from Taiwan.
So, where do we stand in 2011? Let’s put it this way. In 2006, there were 33 events sanctioned, or co-sanctioned, by the LPGA, 26 of which were played in the United States. This year, there are 25 events in total, only 13 of which are to be played on American soil, the first of them in Phoenix next week.
But who is to say this is a bad thing? The game has grown and a new generation of players has come through. No one in Korea or Japan, say, will think the game is on its knees. The LPGA tended to look inwards, but must now look beyond its borders, to run a world tour.
How you sell that at home, however, is a whole new ball game. And as for tapping up American companies for a bit of sponsorship money? Forget it. They are finding other ways of spending their cash.
Advertisement
**
I see that Colin Montgomerie has signed up to play in next week’s inaugural Sicilian Open. No doubt he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.