Why did Hank Haney quit as coach of Tiger Woods? — simple answer The Haney Project failed
The Golf Blog says: Hank Haney posted a stunning message on his website last night saying that he was resigning as Tiger Woods’ coach, effective immediately. This comes only days after Haney’s vigorous defense of his coaching ability in response to Johnny Miller’s controversial remark that Tiger should “ditch” Haney and return to his old swing of 2000 under Butch Harmon’s tutelage (now Phil Mickelson’s coach). And it comes just 1 day after Tiger Woods endorsed Haney as his coach on Monday during an interview. The timing of Haney’s departure also seems unfortunate, given Tiger’s marital woes and possible divorce following the revelations of his sexual escapades with various women.
UPDATE: Strangely for a 6 year relationship, Hank Haney informed Tiger of his decision to quit by a text message. Tiger has posted a short response on his website: “Hank Haney and I have agreed that he will no longer be my coach. Hank is an outstanding teacher and has been a great help to me, but equally importantly he is a friend. That will not change. I would like to thank him for all he has done for me the past six years.”
So why did Haney suddenly quit? The Golf Blog believes the answer is simple. The Haney Project with Tiger Woods failed. The main reason Woods went to Haney was to fix the wayward driver, Tiger’s biggest Achilles heel. As we chronicled earlier, the stats on Tiger’s driving accuracy plummeted after Woods switched to Haney. And they haven’t gotten any better. These stats are the most damning piece of evidence against Haney–click here to view them. Haney almost seems to admit that his teaching hasn’t done that much for Tiger: “In many ways because of all of the time that I have spent with Tiger, I may have learned more from him than he has ever learned from me.” As a teacher, Haney probably realized that his instruction didn’t appear to be taking hold in Tiger, at least not off the tee. That’s not to blame Hank, but it is to point out a plateau in Tiger’s maturation.
Haney’s “1 plane” swing method is controversial. It didn’t work for Charles Barkley. It doesn’t appear to be working for Ray Romano. And it hasn’t worked for Tiger Woods. The stats don’t lie. The numbers below don’t show progress.
Tiger’s Driving accuracy stats under Hank Haney
2004 – 56.1
2005 – 54.6
2006 – 60.71
2007 – 59.83
2008 – 57.86
2009 – 64.29
2010 – 51.19
Video of Haney’s 1 plane or correct plane theory:
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