Forget winning a series of majors. For the past few seasons, Tiger Woods has merely been the best in the world at piling up the platitudes.
Having just dumped his swing coach and embarked on yet another career transition, the golf world can look forward to another two-year period of recycled Woods-speak as he adjusts to the nuances of yet another set of swing mechanics.
You know the lyrics already.
“I need more reps ... It is what it is ... It’s a process ... Just have to trust it... I fell into my old swing patterns.”
Sound familiar? Woods is the only player in golf history to have reached world No 1 under the guidance of three different coaches, and he almost surely will attempt a coaching grand slam by hiring instructor No 4.
Woods and Sean Foley, who was hired four years ago when Woods was at the absolute nadir of his career, parted ways this week, a move that was surprising in that the former world No 1 has been hurt for most of 2014, anyway.
But tracking Tiger is an art form nobody has mastered, and he has parted ways with a wife, caddie, two swing coaches and relocated to a new house since he last won a major six years ago.
It is hardly a fresh assertion to say that Woods, who turns 40 next year, seems addicted to change.
Rarely, if ever, has there been an elite player who required more hands-on guidance, though Woods has been slow to recognise just how high-maintenance he has become. In 2002, when Woods cut ties with Butch Harmon, who helped make him the greatest player in the game, he planned to go it alone.
“That’s what video cameras are for,” he said. That sentiment lasted a few weeks before he hired Hank Haney, who resigned as Woods’s coach five years ago.
Woods briefly tried to survive as a solo act and fell on his face before hiring Foley, who also coaches Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan and Edoardo Molinari. Harmon and Haney believe Woods can thrive without constant hand-holding.
“If I were advising Tiger, I’d tell him, ‘You’re the greatest player that ever lived, just go to the range and hit shots’,” Harmon told the Golf Channel.
It generally has taken Woods two years to adjust to the swing tweaks incorporated by his three previous gurus, who each overhauled his move in various ways. Given his medical issues, it is debatable whether Woods has two more years left to waste. He has dropped from first to 12th in the world ranking since January.
“He knows enough to tell most coaches what to do,” NBC analyst Johnny Miller said. “He needs to quit being Ponce de León, looking for that fountain of youth.”
It is an apt observation. The famed Spanish explorer, like Woods, never stopped searching.
selling@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
