The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods

Grade: A+
Teacher’s Comments: A great read with terrific insights into the game and mind of the best golfer of his generation

Hank Haney’s The Big Miss is without a doubt one of the most controversial—if not THE most controversial—golf book ever written. As it has been variously described as an expose, a scandal sheet, and a violation of teacher-student privilege, I approached the volume with some trepidation. I really have no interest in Hollywood style exposes and as a teacher, I was more than a little uncomfortable with the idea of airing out a student’s dirty laundry in public.

My worries—based on early media reports and complaints from the Tiger camp—were misplaced. I found The Big Miss to be neither scandalous nor disrespectful.

The Big Miss succeeds for me because it is nearly entirely about golf. Haney writes about Tiger’s tournament preparation, training and work habits. He dissects Tiger’s swing issues and explains the attempts to fix them. Haney dissects—from a teacher’s point of view—Tiger’s mental processes and how they both helped and hampered his winning of championships.  And he writes about his increasingly frustrating attempts to establish a personal relationship with Tiger.

Of Tiger’s marital infidelities, sex addiction and other potential scandals there is very little. Haney—like most of Tiger’s “inner circle”—seems to have known nothing about the other women. He also refutes the idea that Tiger has taken performance enhancing drugs. Haney’s discussion of the scandals is only in relation to how they apparently changed Tiger’s game and his relationship to Haney.

Perhaps most revealing is the now widely-spread story of Tiger’s obsession with the military and military-style training. Haney claims—and we may never know the full truth—that Tiger’s injuries were due to Navy SEAL style training exercises. He contends that both he and Tiger’s regular trainer argued against the high stress exercises, and against adding bulk and power lifting but were ignored.

If the Tiger camp condemns The Big Miss, it is because the book’s claims are close enough to the mark to be uncomfortable. The military training has the ring of truth. Further, the Tiger portrayed is not at all likable. Haney’s portrait of Tiger is of a man focused entirely on winning golf, to the point where his human relationships suffer. He is cold and calculating, taking much and giving little in return.

But none of that can be news to anyone who has paid attention to Tiger over the years. Media reports have been consistent with the notion that Tiger is a bit of a cold fish. The only shocking thing to me is how poorly he apparently treated Haney.

Still, Haney treats his former pupil with a great deal of respect and compassion. I actually came away from reading this book with a better understanding of—and compassion for—Tiger. He is a more sympathetic character in many ways than I had previously suspected.

The book’s title is an interesting one. On one level, it refers to a central tenet of his lessons to Tiger—to develop a swing that avoids the Big Miss. But it has many deeper meanings: Haney’s teaching … Tiger’s life …

Highly Recommended.

Not pretty. It says a lot about Tiger’s state of mind right now.

A New York Times column on the incident: Tiger’s Display An Embarassment To The Game

Note: I have been receiving criticism about this post. “Tiger was just letting out his frustration at a bad shot. Leave him alone” is the tenor of the comments via this site and email. To this, I point to his playing partner Miguel Angel Jimenez. When MAJ put a ball in the water, he did not kick a club. The guy just watched it go and then moved on.

You didn’t win the MegaMillions lottery, but perhaps you can score an autographed Tiger Woods golf bag.

Fuse Science, Tiger’s bag sponsor, is giving away an autographed Tiger Woods bag.

That would look really good in the lobby of GolfBlogger World Headquarters.

I have to admit, though, that from the initial descriptions, I wasn’t entirely sure about the purpose of Fuse. The basic product description says that Fuse: 

“has successfully developed and maintains the rights to sublingual and transdermal delivery systems for bioactive agents that can now, for the first time, effectively encapsulate and charge many varying molecules in order to produce complete product formulations which can bypass the gastrointestinal tract and enter the blood stream directly “

Then the PR guy sent a “clarification.” Even then, the description was mired in scientific doublespeak:

Fuse Science Inc. is a company made up of leading scientific minds and consumer product industry experts with a common goal to redefine the standard of product performance through science. The current product on the market is Enerjel, a topical gel that helps address site specific muscle fatigue, while acting as a natural anti-inflammatory. Enerjel is made with all natural ingredients.

Fuse Science’s unique and innovative technology is designed to accelerate the absorption of nutrients, and even medicines, relative to traditional pills and liquids. It can also improve how consumers receive these products through delivery either under the tongue or through the skin.

For those still seeking an explanation in English: You rub it on or stick it under your tongue. The gel contains vitamins and an anti-inflamatory, like Motrin.

Update: Another clarification, then from their PR agency. You don’t put it under the tongue. You apply it with a roll on.

This is without a doubt the most confusing, obfuscated mishmash of scientific gobbledygook I have ever encountered. Their writer should be fired. If you can’t say it in plain English, it’s not worth saying.

Press release follows:

I turns out that Hank Haney’s book is the least of Tiger’s PR worries. Three of his former mistresses are producing a porn film in which they will discuss his Tiger’s peccadilloes and demonstrate his moves.

Fox reports that it will be called “3 Mistresses: Notorious Tales of the World’s Greatest Golfer,” and is slated for an April 3 release.

I debated running this story a long while, but in the end decided that it was just too funny to pass.

This can’t be good: Tiger got a twinge in his back when he stopped his swing after hearing a camera click during his backswing. According to Tiger, it took him a couple of holes to work it out. He also reported that he’s still experiencing tightness in his Achilles.

And so it goes.

I’ve been saying for a couple of weeks now that Tiger is a pretty good tour player. That’s a bit of a left-handed complement, of course. There’s no question that at one point he was a historic best, but my judgement is that recently either he has slipped or the rest of the field has caught up (more likely).  Given the level of competition, I’ve predicted on several occasions that he won’t win this year Nor will most of the players on Tour. There are 150 players on tour and only forty events.

A factoid from golf writer Doug Ferguson reveals a struggling player Here’s the scorecard for Tiger’s last 33 events:  Three withdrawals, two missed cuts and—get this: twenty two finishes out of the Top Ten.

Yes, his injuries have a lot to do with that. But as in any sport, injuries are a part of the game. Guys who continue to win into their forties do so in no small part because they avoid injuries. Jack and Tom Watson did, but Fred Couples did not.

What intrigues me most about this latest withdrawal (from the WGC Cadillac) is that the injury is once again to the left leg—the same one that he played on while it was broken at the US Open, and on which he has had several surgeries. He missed four months last year after a knee and Achilles injury that he described at the time as “minor.”

He did manage, however, to walk out into the parking lot and drive off under his own power. He also said that he would have it examined early next week. That doesn’t speak to me of a critical injury. At the very least, though, I wonder how this will set him back in his practice.

We’ll see.

The Cliffs, a planned high-end golf community in North Carolina has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Along with it goes a planned Tiger Woods course design. Another Woods design—in Dubai—was never finished.

The golf development market is tough these days.