While Tiger Woods’s decision to cut ties with coach Sean Foley was mostly met with complete surprise, there was another popular item on the reactionary menu. The one reading: What took so long?
“I liken Tiger Woods to a football team,” Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said. “And if he were a football team and Sean were the coach, he would have been fired a long time ago.”
Ironically, Foley was jettisoned one day after another top pupil, Hunter Mahan, won the FedEx Cup series opener. No doubt, the timing of Woods’s announcement was curious. Winless this year, Woods will not play until December, when he will likely resurface with another coach in tow – identity to be determined.
Largely forgotten is that Foley started working with Woods when the latter was at rock bottom, his confidence sapped by poor play and the dramas in his private life. Yet the Canadian steered him back to world No 1.
Justin Rose had a bad back when he began working with Foley, who pieced together a swing that took the pressure off the Englishman’s lower spine. Rose has become a top-10 fixture. Moreover, Woods has often been unwilling or unable to work as hard as he once did, a source of frustration for Foley. So, scapegoating the coach is patently unfair.
“[Foley] can win the Super Bowl with Hunter Mahan and Justin Rose,” Chamblee said, continuing his football metaphor, “but it’s just not a good fit for Tiger Woods.”
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