Did you happen to watch the Booz Allen Classic at the TPC at Avenel on ABC this weekend?
Well, Tiger's almost perfect golf swing from 2000-2001 finally resurfaced. Only it wasn't Tiger Woods that was swinging the club. It was the young Aussie, Adam Scott.
Those who follow the PGA over the last several years know about the similarities between Adam and Tiger's golf swing.
Their swings are often described as "textbook." But it has always been that Adam's swing plays second fiddle to that of Tiger's.
However, it is clear as day that Adam is swinging the club much better than Tiger right now. I mean the dude from down under smoked a 2-iron 320 yards straight down the fairway on the par 4 12th. Yes, 320 yards. In fact, Adam is swinging it better than anyone else period. Why? Well Adam is doing many of the things that Tiger did in 2000. Namely, he's working with Butch Harmon. Butch is getting Adam in the perfect setup and they are obviously working on all the right things.
What about Tiger? To start, he's not working with Butch. Instead he's working on his own. Well it seems that he's working on getting worse. In his pro career, he's never been so wild off the tee as he is now. Mysteriously, he now seems to believe that the best ball flight is a slight draw rather than his natural controlled fade. Sound familiar? That's the same theory followed by his best golf buddy, O'Meara. O'Meara is best known as a two-time major winner. But soon he'll be known as the guy who ruined the best swing in golf. Well, him and his partner in crime, Hank Haney the Yip meister.
If it wasn't already clear that Butch is the best swing coach in the world, Adam has now confirmed it (along with Pavin's resurgence). If Tiger wants to regain his former dominance, he should swallow his ego and dial 1-800-BUTCHIE.
4 comments:
Tiger needs to suck it up and get back to business, if Butch would even take him back that is. The last thing I want to see is an other O'Meara out there hackin away at the '08 Open at Torrey.
If Tiger does find his old swing again, an eventual Scott/Tiger rivalry could be very interesting. Maybe its just a media ploy?
>In fact, Adam is swinging it better than anyone else period. Why? Well Adam is doing many of the things that Tiger did in 2000. Namely, he's working with Butch Harmon. Butch is getting Adam in the perfect setup and they are obviously working on all the right things.
Do you really think this is a perfect takeaway? (http://www.golf-tips.info/forumdyna/scott/as3.jpg) I consider Butch Harmon as the most overrated teacher in the world. A few years ago he made a fool of out of himself in front of a thousand teaching pros at the PGA teaching summit in New Orleans when he proved that he can’t even spot a heeled shot. His student Bruce Willis hit a shot of the heel and consequently his club face closed extremely after impact. Butch was amazed about his enormous hand action and told him to grip a little tighter!? He also showed the swings of his most prominent students at the time: Love, Norman, Woods and the only difference that was visible was that he shortened their swings hoping that the crossing club at the top would improve a little, which it didn’t in any of the three cases.
Even when Tiger was working with Butch he got most of the decent information from Hank through O’Meara. He practiced laying the club off with forearm rotation, he practiced cupping his left wrist in the downswing and getting his club head outside his hands in the downswing. No way that he got all this information from Butch. Just read Butch’s articles or hear his commentary. He might be a nice guy, I don’t know. And he also might be a great mental coach. I also don’t know. He might even be a guy who can tell Tiger things about course management or equipment. I have no clue. But he definitely doesn’t know much about technique. He hasn’t even got a decent video system. Someone like Tiger needs first class pictures a second after the impact. At least Hank has got the right equipment. (http://www.golf-forum.org/forumdyna/bilder/haneyscope.jpg)
I don’t know whether Hank Haney is able to fix Tiger at the moment. I must admit that I have no clue why Tiger can’t find a fairway with his driver. The swing pictures we get on TV are simply not good enough to evaluate a swing of Tiger’s calibre. Tiger should take a look at this page (www.scope-systems.de)
In any case I am really curious when Tiger will get his swing fixed and who of the pros he will consult has a good answer.
BTW: I also love to watch Adam Scott. His poor takeaway isn’t a big deal since he doesn’t get the club in a crossed position at the top. And I am sure Butch can’t keep him from winning many tournaments, as he couldn’t with Tiger ;-)
People seem to forget that through 98 and 99, Tiger was working on his swing. He wasn't playing well, he wasn't driving well, and he wasn't winning.
He continued to work on his swing as well as tweak things with Butch, then 2000, 2001, and early 2002 happened.
Great, he played awesome, one of the best years of golf I have ever seen.
Tiger left Butch because he felt Butch wasn't teaching Tiger anything new. He knew what was going to come out of Butch's mouth before Butch could say anything.
Tiger is 'working' on his swing right now. He has yet to say, 'he is there' like he did in 2000. But its close and I think alot of people can feel it.
For crying out loud, Tiger won the Masters using his B- game. If he would have been remotely on, he would have won by 8 shots or something. Tiger couldn't hit his ass with both hands off a tee during the Masters, yet he still won. He is a powerful and dominant player, whether he is compared to Scott, Sergio, or whoever.
Haney, from what I have read, is a good teacher. He can't swing a golf club himself from what I understand, but neither could Harvey Penick.
However, the 'idea's and theories' behind Haney's teachings are solid.
I, myself, am trying to round off my swing more. I have always been upright.
Here is my recent golf swing.
Its no Tiger or Adam Scott, but I think its pretty good and allows me to smoke some drives over 300 on good days.
Anyways, give Tiger some more time. Things will be better come the US Open, I am sure.
I think we will see some good things from Tiger the rest of 2005. mark my word.
Tiger will hit more "fairways" if he will "slow-down his swing" he seems to get a little too quick that leads to " an open face at contact of the golf ball.
He will still hit the ball as far and will at least in the fairway more than now.
He is still becomming the "greatest" golfer of all-time.
Nat Williams
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