Tiger, Hank And Three Putting
John Huggan talks to Hank Haney about his book tour, the criticism he expected to come with it and his impressions of Tiger's game heading into this week. Interesting point here for you handicappers to consider:
“There’s pressure on him to win at least one major this year. If he doesn’t, the drought since his last one will be four years long.
“He is playing well right now, though. He is driving the ball better. But, as John Jacobs always taught me, it all comes down to distance control. And Tiger’s isn’t as good as it was under me. He is 170th on tour from 75-100 yards. He is 134th from 100-125 yards. So that’s an issue. Then, of course, there is his putting. Right now, he is 130th in ‘three-putt avoidance’. That doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of going to the Masters this coming week and not three-putting, he is. But you don’t often win majors with four or five three-putts in 72 holes.”
Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 08:51 PM
Reader Comments (33)
Like him less every time he speaks
Ever heard of Drive For Show? Welcome to golf, rookie.
"Three-putt avoidance" (and Haney is correct about the stat) is all about distance control.
It always seemed to me that Tiger made things easy on himself while putting because he was always good with the distance; always close to the hole and never leaving himself in much danger of three-putting.
Now, if he continues to drive it well and his game inside 100 yards is on par with what it was during his most productive seasons he could have a special year. My desire to see if this happens is why I will be watching.
Haney tooting his own horn makes him sound arrogant. Again. But hey, he was recommended by Hogan and Nelson...
Nice piece of gamesmanship from Hank btw.(lol)
Woods' switch to Haney coincided with one of the few lulls in his career. Woods won just once that year on the PGA Tour and did not contend at any of the major championships, his best finish a tie for ninth at the British Open. The man who had won seven of 11 majors through the 2002 U.S. Open had now gone 10 straight without winning one. Haney heard it, too.
"No one in the history of golf has ever got anything close to the scrutiny of Tiger,'' said his coach, Hank Haney, who knows a bit about being scrutinized himself. "Just the way it is and the way it will always be. It just comes with the territory, but it doesn't seem fair, does it?''
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/columns/story?columnist=harig_bob&id=3152369
Haney keeps sighting these random 3-putt stats for tiger that aren't backed up by the tour stats (which come from shotlink)
Well, when Tiger switched to Haney, everything changed, he lost his power even though he became stronger than ever with all the weight training he did. He adopted this arm wipey swing that made him just another guy when it comes to hitting the golf balls. He only won with smoke and mirror, especially toward the end of the HH era. tiger would have changed his swing even if his wild personal life had not come to light. It was inevitable, when he was routinely out drove by Phil Michalson, Nick Watney, even Martin Kaymer. If you didn't believe me, go back watch the tapes in the 2009 Shanghai HSBC. He was grouped with Phil in the last day and was trounced by 5 shots. Tiger had lost his edge.
If anything, the next three years will show that Tiger wasted his best years chasing a dream swing that wasnt there to begin with. He followed some bad advice from Mark O'Merra and end up spending the most productive years of his golfing careers with this phony of a coach Haney, who is more interested in making his young trophy wife happy and himself famous than teaching the art of the golf swing. IT IS AN ABSOLUTE TRAGEDY!!!
Now, Foley is much better, (even though I still think Butch's is the best swing Tiger had ever had.) we will see starting next year, if Tiger can keep his health intact, he will win at an 60 percent rate. He will break the record of wins per season for the modern era, which stands at 9 ( accomplished by both VJ Singh and Tiger).
Yes, you heard it here first.
BTW, Tiger will win at least 3 more British Open where ball striking and penetrating ball flight and trajectory are paramount to success. i predict by US Open and in the later half of this year, you will see his short game returning and his putting stroke fully vested, he will be once agin the most dominant golfer not just in this era but in the history of golf!
I closed the book and didnt care whether Tiger's play with Hank was bad because he was getting bad advice or because, as Hank would have you believe, Tiger wasnt listening.
Either way, i wasnt inspired to buy the "Hank Haney Head bobber swing aid" or pay $500 per day to take lessons from a 30 year old guy i've never heard of wearing a golf shirt with "Hank Haney Golf School" on it.
Tiger's record belongs to TIGER. Hank could have stood there, or any one of a number of good teachers could have, and the reslut would still have been determined 99% by the player.
Hank either feels like he has to defend his "record" or has decided to milk every dollar he can out of the tiger expereience (who really cares that Hank had to screw up his courage to ask his "friend", as hank terms him, for a popsicle).
Since starting to officially work with Woods in 2004, Haney has seen a different standard applied to the game's No. 1 player. And some of that came in the form of criticism toward the instructor.
Woods' switch to Haney coincided with one of the few lulls in his career. Woods won just once that year on the PGA Tour and did not contend at any of the major championships, his best finish a tie for ninth at the British Open. The man who had won seven of 11 majors through the 2002 U.S. Open had now gone 10 straight without winning one. Haney heard it, too.
And the easy place to look was at Woods' driving accuracy, which had dropped from over 70 percent in 2000 to under 60 percent this year -- with varying degrees of difficulty in hitting fairways during that time.
"Wouldn't it be more relevant to compare Tiger to the other players?'' said Haney, who pointed out that most players have lost accuracy over the past five years.
"No one in the history of golf has ever got anything close to the scrutiny of Tiger,'' said his coach, Hank Haney, who knows a bit about being scrutinized himself. "Just the way it is and the way it will always be. It just comes with the territory, but it doesn't seem fair, does it?''
Expect two more wins this year (I'll go out on a limb and say the Duetsche Bank Championship and his Chevron Entertaitional).
Expect very inconsistent putting. If he starts getting fixated on GIR, then he will be consumed by the Colin Montgomerie GIR/Putting Syndrome (this is actually optimistic - could be worse - could be the Robert Allenby GIR/Putting Syndrome).
Also, expect one or two more episodes of pulling another "John Daly" like he did at Doral.
Also, a missed cut at Lythm & St. Annes. Winners there never fit the Tiger mold.
If there was any single person who would recognize that it's way too soon to make "majors under me" type comparisons wouldn't/shouldn't it be Hank?
Seems to me it would be.
First, about Haney: I don't think my position is good for Hank Haney as a swing coach, or bad. To be sure, I am agreeing with Haney that the Three-putt avoidance stat is a real one. And as of last week, when Tiger last played, Haney was exactly correct about Tiger's position in the stat-listing; Tiger was 130th in Three-putt avoidance.
Some suggested that it is because Tiger is now hitting more greens in regulation (he would therefore have more longer putts, which any player is liable to 3-putt more often). I don't think that theory holds up. Tiger was 24th in g.i.r. last week, but his rank before his sterling tee to green play at Bay Hill, a course he seems to own, was 98th.
PGA Tour stats for "Three putt avoidance" are remarkably, even ridiculously, specific. Including useless stats on three putts inside of 15 feet or even 5 feet. Where there aren't even any recorded numbers.
I stand by my personal observation. Hank Haney is right, about Tiger's new propensity to three putt. I do think it is about distance control, with a putter utilizing a face design that is really supposed to roll the ball differently. I am agreeing with Haney, not because of any stubborn alliance with him as an author or anything else; he is just right, in pointing out a very valid statistic.
http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/filter/?1
And for the year the Tour says he's 4th in GIR at about 72%.
FYI.
Yes, Tiger was superb in the Bay Hill Tournament. Yes, he was #1 in g.i.r.; for that event. And yes, even his putting was good that weekend. It's almost always a great statistical week when you win.
But for the year, through the week of Bay Hill, he was #24 in g.i.r. That stat, and Haney's selected Three-putt-avoidance stat, are cumulative stats for all of 2012 so far. When I said, "Tiger was 24th in g.i.r. last week," I meant that he was 24th on Tour through last week. I guess I carelessly used "last week," because he isn't playing this week; stats might change after today without Tiger doing anything at all.
Does anybody else get the senaking suspicion that maybe "Hank Haney's book" is somehow a proxy subject for "Tiger fandom"? It is like something of a social morality Rorschach test.
Start sizing up his jacket, right?