Why Tiger Woods is flying solo with no swing coach

[Kenny Lee Puckett]

That's one happy Swedish goat.

heck I was gonna say that action makes Dustin Johnson's club face look open at the top.

[BottleCap]

 

If he truly wanted to own it he would see me.

Only one knowing the secret

 

 

This made my week

[RichieHunt]

I have zero connections, although I’m quite impressed with how connected some of the forum members here are.

 

My guess, based mostly on my impressions of Tiger from Haney’s book, is that Tiger is an impossibly difficult guy to coach and this clash of personalities creates more distractions than it creates solutions. The only guys that would make a short list of possible swing coaches for Tiger would have egos equal in size to his.

 

In this modern world, Tiger no longer needs a person to tell him what they see. He can record himself and see for himself. He can get all the data from Trackman. After being with some of the most prolific coaches and golf minds of all time, I doubt there is anything that Tiger doesn’t know about the golf swing. A coach would just be a distraction.

 

I am by no means comparing myself to TW, but last year I too was fighting issues with driver and was having ridiculous success with 3w off the tee, and my father would always complain why I would be pulling my driver out all of the time when I was struggling, instead of hitting 3w. Sometimes the inability to do something, in this case hit driver, drives one to prove themselves and others wrong. Everything else can be working, but that one thing that isn't eats away at you and you keep trying to overcome that obstacle even though there's a logical/successful out that doesn't involve said obstacle at all.

 

Insanity, doing something over and over again expecting different results.....

 

I've seen bad driver fittings do that to amateurs.

 

I'm guessing it could happen to the pros as well. Sometimes their driver fittings are not always up to snuff. But with amateurs I've seen so many of them use shafts that are too long, shafts that don't fit their swing and don't match well with the club head properties. And then it becomes a mental thing because the 3-wood is just a better fit to their swing than their driver. So i really don't think it's an AoA thing with a lot of amateurs.

 

What I do see with Tiger is the fear of missing left and then he'll purposely play a fade and like Johnny Miller said on #9 on Sunday at Bay Hill...I really don't like the idea of hitting a fade on purpose when you're on a dogleg left. That was probably Tiger's worst looking swing of the week (which is saying something) and he missed dead right.

 

I think Tiger may want to accept the leftward miss and try to avoid the rightward miss instead. Get out of trying to play the safe fade anytime he doesn't feel comfortable because it has been anything but a 'go to shot' for him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RH

[A.Princey]

I have zero connections, although I’m quite impressed with how connected some of the forum members here are.

 

My guess, based mostly on my impressions of Tiger from Haney’s book, is that Tiger is an impossibly difficult guy to coach and this clash of personalities creates more distractions than it creates solutions. The only guys that would make a short list of possible swing coaches for Tiger would have egos equal in size to his.

 

In this modern world, Tiger no longer needs a person to tell him what they see. He can record himself and see for himself. He can get all the data from Trackman. After being with some of the most prolific coaches and golf minds of all time, I doubt there is anything that Tiger doesn’t know about the golf swing. A coach would just be a distraction.

 

I am by no means comparing myself to TW, but last year I too was fighting issues with driver and was having ridiculous success with 3w off the tee, and my father would always complain why I would be pulling my driver out all of the time when I was struggling, instead of hitting 3w. Sometimes the inability to do something, in this case hit driver, drives one to prove themselves and others wrong. Everything else can be working, but that one thing that isn't eats away at you and you keep trying to overcome that obstacle even though there's a logical/successful out that doesn't involve said obstacle at all.

 

Insanity, doing something over and over again expecting different results.....

 

I've seen bad driver fittings do that to amateurs.

 

I'm guessing it could happen to the pros as well. Sometimes their driver fittings are not always up to snuff. But with amateurs I've seen so many of them use shafts that are too long, shafts that don't fit their swing and don't match well with the club head properties. And then it becomes a mental thing because the 3-wood is just a better fit to their swing than their driver. So i really don't think it's an AoA thing with a lot of amateurs.

 

What I do see with Tiger is the fear of missing left and then he'll purposely play a fade and like Johnny Miller said on #9 on Sunday at Bay Hill...I really don't like the idea of hitting a fade on purpose when you're on a dogleg left. That was probably Tiger's worst looking swing of the week (which is saying something) and he missed dead right.

 

I think Tiger may want to accept the leftward miss and try to avoid the rightward miss instead. Get out of trying to play the safe fade anytime he doesn't feel comfortable because it has been anything but a 'go to shot' for him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RH

 

Yeah, it just seems he's so solid with the rest of his bag, and seeing how it doesn't translate to Driver can only be because his driver swing/setup is so different. How else can the misses be so wayward and inconsistent. Whatever he's trying to do with driver may be the result of TMan numbers, I don't know. Wouldn't that be a shame if he's tailored this swing to optimize launch rather than achieving repeatable ball flight?

[dap]

Mental issues are harder to overcome than technique or equipment. Haney said Tiger has driver "anxiety". This is just to avoid using the word "yip". Tour pros miss fairways but not many miss by 100 yards.

 

Tigers chipping is also still suspect to me. He did hit a lot of good chips but he'll throw in a shocker now and then. Those will haunt him if he's ever in the hunt at Augusta.

[lowheel]

[powerfade66]

 

If he truly wanted to own it he would see me.

Only one knowing the secret

 

 

But... but ... but ... if you tell him, then you won't be the Only One knowing the secret.

 

I think the world is a safer place if you just keep that prize secret to yourself, you know, in case we need to unwrap it to stop nuclear war or something...

 

 

It’s easy to find IF he tells you where to look.

[jbw749]

I'd like to see him tee it up a little higher and sling it out to right field just a tiny little bit. I don't think he'd have to go after it as hard. I hate that tee it low go after it hard for a cut with an ugly recoil thing he's been doing. You just know he's hoping and praying with that swing you can see it in his face after the ball is gone.

[nitram]

If TW ever decides he needs a little help, I'm in the Butch Harmon camp simply because of the results their relationship produced. But, I can also see where less voices in your head is an advantage...

[MK7Golf21]

just saw a couple swings of tigers from the Haney era on tv and it reminded me how nice his swing is now. Looks way better than the Haney era and way better than Foley era as well. He’s also been playing consistently well.

[BB28403]

I want trackman. Go in halfzies? Haha jk :).

great post and nice reply by RH. Always love hearing from the good players on the forums.

[Hawkeye77]

His swing right now looks simply fantastic. Always fun to revisit old posts with all the advice for Tiger (and not saying any of "us" were right or wrong) but to me (and no coach here) it is markedly different than under Foley for the good, and the things that Foley's "method" had creeping into Tiger's putting and short game seem to be gone and he is the better for it. I wish I'd been there in person yesterday because it sounded like he was playing shots - saw the results, but would have been fun to see the swings and the balls in the air. And his short game is back to top of the class.

 

Monte has had some pretty good Instagram posts up about Tiger's short game swing and what the club is doing and how that should translate into good stuff for most of us and isn't what used to be "preached" by many and still is. Gold mine of info in general on his Instagram this past year.

[ferrispgm]

Tigers swing now is money......rotates hips more going back, shoulders rotate around his spine a lot better coming down now as well instead of the crazy vertical shoulders he had before which helps club face control. It's no wonder he has been playing well. The only thing that seems off from time to time is his putter.

[br61]

It's really good to see Tiger swinging and playing well again. He looks like he is having more fun on the course.

Also it's great seeing RBImGuy keeping the secret to himself.

[tacklingdummy]

From a video at his practice session at the President's Cup, he looks like he is slightly stacking on his left side at address and through the golf swing. Not a stack and tilt move, but just favoring the left side more. Looks like a fairly new change.

[hoselpalooza]

slightly off topic but just wanted to say thanks for sharing this video. i didn't realize there was no commentary until about halfway through when i took it off mute. man, i could keep this rolling on a 2nd monitor all day! the sound of golf balls getting clipped and mashed, birds chirping in the background, idle range chatter -- sweet! (though i'd get rid of the wind noise.)

[airjammer]

Anybody who hasn’t been able to go to a pga tour event driving range...every tour player starts off hit little shot like tiger does.

[Hackattack1]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mv3JLfM-vsjust pureeeeeeee

 

[nova6868]

Can you link some of these posts about Tiger's short game? I looked on Monte's Instagram and didn't see much.

Tiger's revamped short game is excellent and I would like to see some analysis of what he's doing. Thanks.

I found this video of a short game practice session where it looks like his technique is pretty classic loaded left side, clubface open, holding right wrist angle through the shot (except for flops)

 

[glk]

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtbgXPqFcmS/Short game shots are pretty much the opposite of what you do on full swings. Follow, Costanza.

[MountainGoat]

He's so smooth now that I think he's just listening to his body and no longer trying to achieve idealized positions. He has dialed out every molecule of excess tension in his swing. It's a thing of beauty now.

[Hawkeye77]

Here's one that I thought was pretty good. LOL, looking through there I fewer Tiger examples than I remember, but some other pros and he makes some of the same points.

I'm not sure I agree that short game = opposite of full swing. This bunker shot is a sweet example.

I'd be interested from glk where he is going with that. I'm just talking in my own context about basic pitches and pitching motion most of which is exactly what I need to be doing in my full swing - wrist hinge, sequencing, release, etc. Bunker shots - I'm just making a golf swing, so to speak. I'm just curious about the differences and it may have more to do with certain kinds of shots, but for me lots of common denominators.

 

 

[glk]

Full swing. Speed/ power. Short game swing precision/ accuracy. One hit high low spin other low with high spin.

wide stance versus narrow. Lower body more active versus just supporting. Shaft lean versus little shaft lean.

sequence lower body lead vs everything move together (little to no arm lag)

upper body gets lower ( regain flexion) versus upper body stays tall and actually ( no tiger head drop)

trail arm stays bents, low point in front vs trail arm casts (response to torso/head moving up, shallowing move to extend arm) with low point at ball or just in front

leading edge vs bounce

as distance increases then things start to blend together.

I think a golfers swing dna probably needs to match up, if you will, between full swing and short game swing - so in that regard it can't really be something completely different - example is James Ridyard has spoken of the short games of Stricker vs Garcia and how they are two ends of a spectrum and that if either tried to incorporate, say, the release of the other they would probably miss the ball.

 

 

[Man_O_War]

soon tour players with bad backs will be heading to Jupiter for help. .. Jupiter the planet that is

[Zitlow]

He figured out that most golf instruction is the same stuff just repackaged depending on the instructor.

[Sean2]

I think the key is impact position...the question is HOW one gets to impact position, which engenders a lot of theories and methodologies of which is the most effective way to do so.

[Zitlow]

I totally agree. Speed, mass and center face contact equate to long straight drives.

[ferrispgm]

Definitely nothing fancy about his short game method.....but he doesn't really hold the wrist angle unless he's trying to hit a low checker....if you watch most of his shots....he releases the right wrist to expose the bounce...he does seem to rotate the body a little more than most so it appears like he holds onto it more.

[MK7Golf21]

you guys see Tiger woods son swing floating around on the web? From a weird angle but looks exactly like Tigers swing, has the dip and everything.

[TIM929]

tigers son has a great swing and John Daly’s son as well.