TARGET WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - 2007

Well, the Tiger did it again! After a 10 week layoff, he roared back for another W. Did anyone expect the layoff to make a difference?

To quote Colin Montgomerie, “If he took a bloody year off, it wouldn't help. Never mind 10 weeks.”

At the final golf tournament of the year Sunday, he closed with a 4-under 68 to match the tournament record at the Target World Challenge and set a record for the largest margin of victory by seven shots over runner up and Masters Champion Zack Johnson.

Johnson closed with a 68, but the only challenge came from Jim Furyk.

Jim Furyk put the pressure on Tiger for two days straight and almost caught him on the front nine Sunday. Tiger had made some mistakes and was now sitting only 2 up.

On ten, Furyk hit a wedge with no spin to about 4 feet above the flag. Woods hit a wedge that spun back 12 feet below the cup where he made birdie. Jim's birdie putt slid by the cup and rolled 4 feet by. Unbelievably, his par putt missed and the Tiger was back to a 4 shot lead.

Tiger later remarked, "Jimmy put a ton of heat on me on the front nine," But the whole tournament switched on the 10th. That was a big two-shot swing there."

But the par 3 15th ended Jim's surge. On Saturday, he had been 3 back from the lead when his 6-iron off the tee found the water for a double bogey. On Sunday, Tiger pulled out his 6-iron and landed nicely on the green. Jim had his 5-iron in his hand, but after Tiger's shot, Jim put the 5 in the bag and took out his six-iron. That's when I scrunched down on the couch and moaned, “Good grief Jim! That will probably put you into the water again.” It did! Another double...

Jim lost his momentum and Zach Johnson gained his. Zach put his putt in the hole for birdie at 18 to ensure his second place finish at 15 under.

Woods finished at 22-under 266, tying the tournament record first set by Davis Love III in 2000. He earned $1.35 million, which he will donate to his Tiger Woods Foundation.

Johnson earned $840,000 for second. and Furyk closed with a 71 finishing third and earning $570,000.

From the start, none of the players expressed doubt as to the outcome of the tourney. At the end there was only one other topic of conversation --- Did Rory Sabbatini make it safely to Hawaii? At the end of Saturday, Rory was 28 shots back. He was nowhere to be found on Sunday. He had withdrawn for “personal reasons.” When angry players demanded an explanation, Rory's agent said he had shin splints. Players complained and Tiger said he is going to get to the bottom of it. Rory's pay check for last place is $170,000.

What do you think? Will he be invited back next year?

So ends the 2007 season. See you at the Mercedes Benz on January 3rd...

Let's Talk about Butch Harmon...

Every golfer and every golfing fan is familiar with Butch Harmon, Phil’s new swing coach and Tiger’s previous coach.

Butch has an amazing ability to watch a shot and see about “20 things at once”. He says his head is like a computer. He sees the grip, ball position, alignment, swing path, clubface angles, and arm angles. In those moments, he can diagnose immediately the cause of a bad result. But just as important, he can explain it to the player in terms the player can understand. And, he has an uncanny knack of being able to show the player, in a very simple way, how to correct the problem.

Some have raised their eyebrows at the fact that Tiger paid Butch only $50,000/year. Doesn't seem like much, but his net worth has grown a big, big bunch from the association. There were obviously other valuable benefits. Here's a pic of Butch visiting with Tiger and Hank Haney (Tiger's current coach) on the practice range:

Butch doesn't charge his tour players anything. He says he charges only his travel expenses, based on how much time he spends with them at a tournament. He says that they all know he is on the range from "sunup to sundown" and if they need him, they have his cell number.

He tells them, if they have a good season, they can write him a check at the end of the year,"or not." Adam Scott writes the biggest checks and has been with Butch since he was a teenager. Other players, instead of money, give him very nice perks ... such things like expensive hours on their private jets.

I understand the Coach charges $600/hour to students at his school, so he's living quite well these days. And has, the past four years, been voted again the Number One Coach. David Ledbetter was voted number 2. I have read that Ledbetter charges $10,000/day. Another source says it’s $10,000/half-a-day. I have tried but am unable to verify David’s fees. If anyone knows, please post it here

Butch says there is a "pecking order" and that he let Phil know that Scotty comes first. But you can be sure that Phil will get plenty of attention. Their main objective is straightening out Mickelson’s driving , through better lower-body control and a tighter swing. Have you noticed? Phil's backswing was shortened immediately, and he seems to have better control. It also appears that he is working on "patience". No fancy shots in the backstretch when he beat Tiger at Deustche Bank. What an exciting round that was! For Phil fans and Tiger fans alike!

Phil says the driver is the main goal and that's why he went to Butch. Phil explains, "He's led two players to No. 1 in the world, and they both were great drivers of the ball." And Butch remarks, "I like Phil ... I think he's the only guy who can catch Tiger now."

Butch jokes that he led 2 players to Number 1 and both of them fired him – Greg Norman and, of course, Tiger. Well, he has two more players now … Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson. What do you think? Will history repeat??

by
Marion Walther

Golf Ball Hunt


One fine day, Jim and Bob are out golfing. Jim slices his ball deep into a wooded ravine. He grabs his 8-iron and proceeds down the embankment into the ravine in search of his ball.

The brush is quite thick, but Jim searches diligently and suddenly he spots something shiny. As he gets closer, he realizes that the shiny object is in fact an 8-iron in the hands of a skeleton lying near an old golf ball.

Jim calls out to his golfing partner in an agitated voice, "Hey Bob, come here, I got trouble down here."

Bob comes running over to the edge of the ravine and calls out, "What's the matter Jim?"

Jim shouts back, "Throw me my 7-iron! You can't get out of here with an 8-iron."

Woods-Haney Remains Solid

Contrary to Pro golf's underground gossip mill, the relationship between Tiger and Hank continues as a source of strength for both of them

Haney's goal has always been to help those he works with become more independent.

By John Hawkins
Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images October 26, 2007

While reprioritizing his life to deal with his wife's health issues this past summer, Hank Haney's relationship with Tiger Woods also changed. The swing coach stopped traveling to tournaments on a regular basis to work with the world's best player, as was the case in 2006, an absence that would eventually become a lead topic in pro golf's underground gossip mill.

"Guys who get fired don't get paid, do they?" Haney told Golf World this week. "And guys who get fired don't talk to [the person who supposedly fired them] on the phone all the time, either. People want to jump to conclusions on everything."

August's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational marks the last PGA Tour event at which Haney provided Woods with on-site consultation. Tiger won that tournament and three others in his final five '07 starts, another dominating homestretch in another mind-boggling season, which should only make speculation about Haney's job status seem all the more ludicrous.

Still, it exists. Perhaps the most overt example occurred on an analysis of Tiger's swing during the FedEx Cup playoffs, when NBC's Johnny Miller suggested that Woods had refined his technique to become a hybrid of the theories applied by Haney and his former coach, Butch Harmon. It was an insinuation no less cryptic than the viewer chose to make it.

Since joining the Woods camp in March 2004, Haney has faced a consistent undercurrent of skepticism regarding both his teaching principles and his role in helping one of the greatest golfers ever get better. A lot of it can be traced to the Butch Factor. The ultra-glib Harmon received immense credit for molding Tiger into a dominant player during their nine years together (1993-2002), and when Woods failed to achieve the same results after letting Harmon go, many wondered aloud why that partnership ended.

Woods' worst season as a pro was 2004, merely fueling the notion that he'd made a mistake in entrusting his swing to Haney. Five major titles and 21 tour victories later, we've come full-circle, so to speak, although any measure of practical thinking should lead one to believe Hank is just as valuable to Tiger giving part-time counsel as he was in the hands-on mode.

After their meeting at the Bridgestone, Woods' average margin of victory in the four wins was a whopping 3.75 strokes. He finished second in the tournament he didn't win, and though he skipped the first playoff event in what now looks like a veiled attempt to level the playing field, Tiger's late-summer brilliance turned all the drama expected of the tour's inaugural postseason into a puddle of anticlimax. Fired? Haney should get a raise.

"Part of my [philosophy] has always been to help someone become more independent, to become their own teacher," he says. "Do you think these great players just stand there and say, 'OK, tell me what to do?' It doesn't work that way. They figure it out themselves, and Tiger has gotten really good at fixing himself. I'll give him whatever he needs, but I don't think it's a whole lot."

Haney's point about self-repair is conveniently ignored by those who think Harmon took a kid playing off a 10 handicap and led him to his first nine major championships. The role of a swing coach has become remarkably overrated in recent years. There are instances when a new set of eyes or an alteration of mechanics has a dramatic and immediate impact -- Harmon's impact on Phil Mickelson this year is the most obvious example -? but a vast majority of coaching at the game's highest level is limited to observation and suggestion.

Nobody's reinventing the wheel out here. A lot of Haney's work with Woods in '06 focused on Tiger's pre-round practice routine -- he would hit a variety of different shots on the range, find the shape and trajectory he felt most comfortable with, then rely on that shot on the course. By the end of last season, Woods had perfected Haney's method to the point where he won six consecutive tour events. Questions regarding the relationship could not be taken seriously.

When the condition of Haney's wife worsened this summer, Woods' coach faced a decision that was tough to make but easy to rationalize. He was already scaling back on tournament visits, but now, somebody needed him a lot more than did the world's best golfer. Having spent more than 200 days on the road in '06, not only working with Woods but on ESPN's golf telecasts and at a substantial number of teaching clinics, Haney quickly accepted the transition that had elbowed its way into his busy schedule.

He hasn't been fired, and he's not on hiatus. He speaks to Woods over the telephone when the situation calls for it, which isn't all that often because he did his job so well. "People think that because he's hitting the ball better, he must be doing something different," Haney says. "The real breakthrough was [in June] at Oakmont, a tight, U.S. Open golf course, where he drove the ball really well.

"He has gotten to the point where he really is a lot better, and now he's showing everybody what me and a few others have been seeing [in practice] for quite a while. I don't see myself spending as much time out there as I used to. I can't do it and I'm not going to do it, but mainly, Tiger doesn't need it anymore."

PGA GRAND SLAM 2007

Tuckers Town, Bermuda -The Grand Slam is in progress. Yesterday Paddy Harrington ended the day leading by one over Angel Cabrera at Mid Ocean Club in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Hawaii’s Poipu Bay was skipped over for Mid Ocean, which is only a 6,600 yard course. However, the greens were in pure condition and the swirling winds and ocean breezes are producing some unexpected results. Angel escaped with only one bogey for the day, but everyone else had their problems.
Paddy finished with a 3-under 67 and Angel missed a 15-foot eagle at the 18^th for a final 68. Zach Johnson and Jim Furyk both finished with a 71 sitting 4 back.

Tiger withdrew from this one opening up the spot for his good friend Jim Furyk. Tiger is spending these days with Elin and Sam Alexis and does not plan to return until Target World in December.

Zach’s approach shot on the 2nd bounced into someone’s back yard. He was worried about messing up their lawn and spent a few minutes picking it clean. He got free relief from a stone walkway and then two-putted for a bogey. He and the rest of the field were shocked to learn at that point that Mid Ocean does not have an out-of-bounds.

Tune in again tomorrow…

P.S. Fry’s Electronics Open begins tomorrow at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. Phil Mickelson and Aaron Baddely (Badds) will be competing. Should be a good one.

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Golf ... In-the-Hole is a blog that concentrates mostly on instructions and ideas on improving your golf game. It is also very into the players and how they play the game. I LOVE golf and I LOVE everything about it. I keep very close contact with all the players and the courses and what is currently happening. Everyone is welcome to jump in a put in your 2 cents worth. Let's keep it nice and keep it fun and exciting and interesting.

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