Hank Haney files suit against PGA

[Carl Spackler3]

Haney and Harmon both despicable talking shit about the players that put them on the map. PGA tour and individual players crazy to be involved with either one

[Holy Moses]

Crazy to be involved with a Harmon? Why?

[Hawkeye77]

Harmons as a group about the best pedigrees out there for teaching and success. Too bad Butch and Billy aged, but it's inevitable. Great "eyes".

[Carl Spackler3]

Same reason, talking shite about John Daley and his personal problems, telling Haney sparkly good luck taking on tiger, getting involved in caddies leaving players for new gigs.. that sort of small betrayal I wouldn’t want from an instructor

[CasualLie]

It’s really just attitude. If you are liked at work, get along, show some humility, then people will help out even when you say something stupid. But act like an arrogant know it all, and make your schtick about something that looks like bitterness, then you are walking a fine line which will go badly if you push it too far. No one is going to stick their neck out for an attiude like that. They will “love” you while you are still emnployed; entertained by your antics as you push the edge in places they will not. But take one step too far and those so called fans, the ones that can save your job, they all disappear.

As for a lawsuit, does Haney know a lawyer who will work on contingency? I can’t imagine the guy who is spiraling in the wrong direction income wise would drop $25K to a lawyer to go chase the PGA Tour. It seems like he is playing the desperation card. I hope he is not taking the “I know things” route in hope of getting a settlement! It’s a sad thing to watch someone act as if they are more important than they really are and ask a court to give them a payday. Just move on; you had a good run, it’s over now...world has already moved on.

Honestly, I do not understand why Tiger worked with Haney in the first place other than “price”.

[Holy Moses]

Haney had some great years with Tiger. His iron game was untouchable. You can’t fault Tiger for working with Hank.

[smashdn]

I predict settlement. In which case he and his lawyers win, somewhat.

[CasualLie]

Fact: young Tiger learned to control iron distances under Butch. Tiger did the work. His iron game became untouchable and has been every year since for a healthy Tiger. Haney’s contribution to Tiger’s iron game can be best summed up as Haney being decent at holding the camera still. Same goes for Foley.

[Holy Moses]

He had his best winning percentage under Haney I believe. There's no reason to hate Hank.

[paulj826]

Haney hasn't had any talent in a long time , hence no focus. Trying to exploit Tiger was a dumb move, I think he thought he had leverage at the time so he threw him under the bus. Just like Steve Williams. I think Steve wanted to sit there any say I knew nothing of Tigers actions and throw shade on him and expect Tiger to be like yeah man lets go back to work together. Seeing videos of Haney's instruction now its hard to see what Tiger ever entrusted in him. Tiger had to have known way more about the swing then him. Or am I wrong?

 

[Holy Moses]

I can understand why someone wouldn't like Hank's radio shows. I used to listen to him on Sirius XM, but now Hank relies far more on saying things that are wrong loudly than giving the listener a good show. There's better shows on Sirius XM like "Inside the Ropes" and "Katrek and Maginnes" and about ten better podcasts too. With that said, Hank is a multi-millionaire and I'm pretty sure he can pay a lawyer.

[CasualLie]

Not hating on Hank; couldn’t care less about him. He got paid, and he parlayed the Tiger relationship into many other ventures that would not be otherwise available to him. He should show a bit of appreciation and just shut up.

I need Quigley to help out on the best win percentage stat; is that irony or coincidence???

How many shots did Hank hit during Tiger’s run?

[Hawkeye77]

Now, now - he hit just as many as Butch or Foley or Como.

[Holy Moses]

Swing coaches don't hit shots. Never have, never will. But they can certainly help or hurt a player. Every good swing coach has parlayed their success into greater ventures. That's what successful people do. I don't see why Hank can't do the same. Hank had already worked with major winner Mark O'Meara - he wasn't a nobody. Again, you don't have to like Hank's personality but you can't critique his success with O'Meara and Tiger.

[OBbogey5]

I’ll say it again, I loved reading his book. Read it twice in fact. What’s wrong with that?

[OldTomMorris]

He was a victim of a social media mob and the sooner companies/organisations learn, one way or another, not to fold under pressure from a few people on Twitter the better it will be for everyone. The reaction to his comments were ridiculously over the top.

My impressions of Hank come from The Haney Project but I haven't listened/watched anything from him in recent times. He does seem unpopular with a lot of people on here.

[QuigleyDU]

WRX blames him for Tiger not breaking Jack's record. Tiger is just slightly less than deity here.

[mukster]

Simply starting a sentence with "Fact:" does not automatically make the content factual.

[CasualLie]

Getting back to the topic at hand; how does Haney’s lawyer think he can win this or even get a settlement? It’s not like when he represented Vijay against the PGA Tour. I do not know under what pretext SiriusXM terminated Haney’s contract. Likely it was based on your standard morality clause in the contract, and if Haney really has a claim that he was targeted and the contract wrongfully terminated, then why not go after SiriusXM? Well, because IF it was based on a morality clause, his lawyer knows that he cannot expect to have much of a chance since SiriusXM is a DE corp and DE courts do not care about these things unless you can prove the termination was really about being part of a protected class. So if you cannot go after Sirius, then go after PGA Tour in Florida for tortious interference? Interesting. Maybe that flies in Florida, we will see.

The case itself is a somewhat interesting read:https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/HaneyPGATour-COMPLAINT.pdf

But are we talking about the PGA Tour really being so petty as to ruin Haney or it is just the sequence of events that happens in this ultra sensitive environment? The joint statement between SiriusXM/PGA Tour is pretty interesting that the suspension happened “At the PGA TOUR’s instruction”, but is that illegal? You are a media personality, you have a standard to adhere to, one day you say too much and cross the line, while at first your “employer” is not too reactive and hopes it blows over, upon later reflection, and pressure from your biggest sponsor, employer rethinks it and decides to terminate. Illegal?

Sorry Hank, it just looks to me like you took a chance, you pushed the boundaries and it got you paid quite a lot for awhile, but then the music stopped and oops, no more for you. That’s life. If the PGA Tour, Avis, and Callaway want to protect / project an image you are not part of, that’s the way it goes.

Other interesting claim from the lawyer:

”Woods’ success has driven the economic engine of the PGA TOUR since 1997. As such, the PGA TOUR systematically accommodates his requests and expectations through the tailoring of policies such as scheduling, sponsor obligations and tournament operating rights to his benefit.”

Really? So Tiger told the Tour, get back at Haney!

[QuigleyDU]

I will stick to my original thought that they will settle. Which means Haney gets paid. Which means he wins.

[bscinstnct]

Wow, thanks for posting. It's really laid out clearly there in easy to understand language. The basis is

 

Tortious Interference with Contract and Tortious Interference with Business Relations.

 

From what I see, and I'm not a lawyer ; ), the suit says that Sirius would not have fired Haney had the PGA Tour not applied the pressure.

 

I guess they could start calling all kinds of people to testify from the tour and Sirius to get to the bottom of it, if there is a bottom.

[davep043]

Given that the PGA Tour allows Sirius to use its name on a station, I'd bet the company line from both will be that Haney was fired for cause, not because of PGA interference, and there's language in his contract that allows it. Its certainly appropriate for Sirius to consult with the PGA Tour to learn the Tours opinion, whether Haney's actions, and continuing employment, would reflect badly on Sirius itself.

[bscinstnct]

Good point. Is it safe to assume that the Tour has some sort of contract with Sirius?

 

So, hypothetically,

 

If party A has a contract with party B. And party C also has a contract with party B. And party A does something that party C deems to be detrimental to their own interests. Can they tell Party B that they feel they should terminate their relationship with party A or they won't do business with them?

[davep043]

I wouldn't assume anything, but Sirius' website shows the PGA Tour's logo, and the circled R that indicates that "PGA Tour" is a registered trademark. I'm pretty sure they'd make sure that there's some formal arrangement between the two before Sirius would be using them. I don't know that the PGA Tour could unilaterally instruct Sirius to fire Hank, but they can certainly indicate to their business partner that they're getting feedback that Hank is damaging the image of both Sirius and the Tour. That damage could be the basis for terminating Hank, if I read the contract correctly. But I am definitely not an attorney.

[TimK1]

I actually went back and read Haney's book again. It just came across a petty and I'm not sure except a payday what he was trying to accomplish with it. Was he trying to get across that Tiger was a manic? Of course Tiger was. You don't get to that obsession in life without being some kind of self absorbed lunatic.

Was he trying to deflect or clear himself from any blame for what had happened? He seemed in the book to be concerned with making sure Tiger was the idiot and not him.

The bottom line in the book was that Tiger hired him to do a job. Hank got plenty from it. Tiger brought him in to his inner circle. Regardless of how it ends, you just don't break that code of writing some tell all book about somebody who trusted you and exposed his life to you. How could anybody trust him again to not do that to them?

It showed the lack of true character of the man himself. Butch never got harmed by Tiger moving on from him. He was smart enough to not shit on where he eats. He had plenty of guys that still came to him and still worked with him because he never betrayed that trust of a person who trusted him.

So him filing a law suit seems to be part and parcel of his character that he had all along.

Just like in the book, passing blame and trying to make himself out to be a victim of other peoples agenda.

He needs some self reflection and to just ride off into the sunset, he burned his bridges a long time ago.

[Outlier]

However, nobody- not Butch, Foley, Como, Leadbetter seem to have generated the same feelings a HH. "Ironic" that he loves to call Patrick Reed "table for 1".....

[Holy Moses]

Hank isn’t with Callaway anymore. Not sure if it was related to the Sirius XM fiasco or if his deal just ended, but if it was that’s just another reason he’s suing the PGA Tour.

[drbob28]

And that zombie dragon was the greatest animal character in the history of film. Now, what was the topic of this thread again?

[HackDaddy360]

This.

What strikes me as funny about this is you hear the most crass, vulgar stuff - daily - at 19th holes around the world. Perpetrated by men, women and all ethnicities.

Yet - gasp - Haney said something that was more-less factually accurate. Poor taste? Maybe. Way out of bounds? Not really. That’s a stretch in my mind. If you don’t want things like this being said about the LPGA tour then you might want to reconsider the composition on the tour, how it’s marketed, etc. - if you think something needs to be changed. Thats just reality.

I DGAF about Hank - he’s been imploding for a while and frankly never really liked him even when he was popular. What I’m more disappointed by is the PGA Tour’s response or the “outrage” over his comments. Don’t like what someone says? Don’t listen to them... it’s pretty easy. The man’s allowed to have an opinion and he’s paid to share it.

I better turn the heat down before I melt all the snowflakes here though - /end rant.

[bscinstnct]

“The man’s allowed to have an opinion and he’s paid to share it.”

 

Haney is free to say what he wants and get paid. Just not by the PGA Tour. I imagine between his self admitted ignorance of the LPGA and his comments that offended a number of people, they decided to not have the PGA Tour brand associated with him.

 

Here is an example, call this person a “snowflake”, lol, but that’s how it is...

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/sc76ers/status/1133800369698553859