Tiger Woods, who reportedly frustrates the hell out of his instructors, could not care less about breaking Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championship titles, according to former coach Hank Haney.
Haney, who has never walked away from an opportunity to rag on the guy he coached for six years while damning him with faint praise, did just that on Friday as well as break all sorts of confidences with two of Tiger’s other swing gurus.
"He told me that, ‘You know what? If I don’t break Jack Nicklaus’s record, it doesn’t matter to me,’" Haney told 106.7 The Fan the day after Woods withdrew midway through the Farmers Insurance Open with a back injury.
"He said, ‘I’m very happy with what I’ve done in my career,’" claimed Haney, who split with Woods under less-than-friendly circumstances in 2010 and went on to write a tell-all book about their time together. "Now, you know, maybe he was just saying that, but I’m just telling you, that’s what he told me. And, you know what? He’s done a ton."
More on Tiger
More on Tiger
Haney embellished on his comments on his own show on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Friday, contending that the Tiger/Jack rivalry was concocted by golf writers.
"‘If my career ended today, I’d be happy with what I’ve done,’" Haney said Woods told him in 2007. "If his career ended today, I think he would feel great about what he’s done.
"This thing that the media has drummed up -- that Tiger’s No. 1 goal, the No. 1 driving factor in all of Tiger’s life is to beat Jack Nicklaus’ record -- I’m just going to tell you that I was with him for six years, 110 days a year and I never got that feeling," Haney insisted. "Never, never did I get that feeling that that was the No. 1 thing that was driving him."
If what Haney’s suddenly putting out there is true, one has to wonder what possible incentive Woods has to return to competition after his latest injury-related setback.
Woods blamed a fog-delayed stop-and-start day for tightness in his lower back that forced him to walk away from Torrey Pines -- where he had won eight times -- after hitting a tee shot on the par-3 third, his 12th hole of the day. He had returned last June after back surgery but was gone again after missing the cut in pain at the PGA Championship in August.
When he called it quits on Thursday, Woods had completed just 47 holes in 2015 in his latest comeback marked by a career-worst 82 and a missed cut a week ago at the Phoenix Open. Despite his current injury-plagued record, and the fact that he’s been stuck on 14 major victories since he won the 2008 U.S. Open, Haney reiterated his opinion that a healthy Tiger could still win another major.
"How could he not? I mean, he’s Tiger Woods," Haney said. "If he gets in position, he could win. The problem is, you have to get in position, and he hasn’t been in position to win a tournament -- you’ve got to be on the leader, tied for lead on Sunday. He hasn’t been there since 2009 ... It’s 2015 now."
Haney, who succeeded Butch Harmon and preceded Sean Foley as the guy videotaping Woods’ swing, told tales out of school on Foley as well as Chris Como, Tiger’s current "consultant," whom Haney referred to rather disdainfully as "this biomechanics expert." Teaching the fading superstar, it may not surprise any Tiger watcher to know, may be one of the most frustrating jobs in golf.
"It’s just not as easy at it looks," Haney said. "You just don’t go in there with Tiger Woods and say, ‘Oh, do this.’ Sean Foley was quoted, a month after he worked with Tiger, as saying ‘You can’t get this guy to listen to anything.'"
Maybe not so much "quoted," as confided in a Haney intimate.
"Well, I mean, it was private, he said that to a friend of mine," Haney said. "I heard the same quote, privately, already from this new coach ... Como."
The point was "you just don’t fix things. It doesn’t work like that," Haney said.
"You have to have a student that you get to listen, and you have to motivate him, and you have to get your points across," he said. "Even if you know what somebody needs to do, that’s not enough. You have to get them to do it. A lot of coaches know what you’re supposed to do, but can you get him to do it?"
Haney, on SiriusXM, said, on one hand, that Como was not to blame for Woods' current problems. However, the Como experiment was "an epic failure," he declared. "This isn't the coach’s problem, this isn't Como's fault [but] as far as his back getting hurt ... you’re the biomechanics expert; this should have been fixed."
As to whether Woods, unable to make cuts and constantly injured, may be getting ready to hang up his spikes, Haney was equivocal.
"What other options does he have? He’s not going to keep going out there and just playing like that," he said. "Either he’s got to get healthy and be able to practice and get his game back, or I don’t know what other option he would have."
Thursday at Torrey Pines
Thursday at Torrey Pines
After the familiar "He’s Tiger Woods. My opinion is nobody has ever played the game better than Tiger Woods," comment, Haney recited a litany of Woods’ most recent failures.
"To go out there and play like he’s been playing ... His swing looked a little better at Isleworth [at the Hero World Challenge in December] but ... he lost to Jordan Spieth by 26 shots on his own course," Haney said. "He finished dead last at Phoenix and then he made it 11 holes yesterday, and that wasn’t going good either. He was lucky to be 2-over par."
While unwilling to prognosticate Tiger’s future, Haney acknowledged that retirement was a possibility. "It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen," he said, "but obviously, that’s an option, isn’t it?"
As for Woods’ renowned practice regimen, Haney said his pupil began cutting back on beating buckets of balls back years ago. "I started seeing it back in 2007," Haney said. "Just lack of, just not practicing as much. Not working on his putting as much. Not going to the driving range after rounds of golf. Fewer holes on the golf course. Just things like that."
Haney blamed longevity, knee pain, and a decreasing lack of desire and motivation for his prolonged absences from the practice areas. "In my experience with great athletes, when that starts to leave a little bit, they don’t ever -- he’ll never get it back," Haney said. "They may get it back for a little short period of time, but it never comes back like it was."
Haney also scoffed at Woods leaving the range to watch girlfriend Lindsey Vonn ski.
"I don’t blame him. I don’t blame him at all, but it’s undeniable. I mean, c’mon," Haney added. "Would Tiger Woods have ever gone to see some practice, or preliminary ski race or something two days before a tournament after he just played his worst tournament ever? I mean, C’mon."