Hank Haney\u2019s book about working with Tiger Woods hits stores March 27. Golf World obtained a copy and explored some of its more interesting details<\/p>\n
By now, you\u2019ve likely heard some of the early revelations in The Big Miss, Hank Haney\u2019s book about his stint as Tiger Woods\u2019 swing coach; that Woods was obsessed with the military and dreamed of becoming a Navy SEAL; that he hurt his knee not while running (as he claimed) but while participating in Navy SEAL-type training exercises; and even that he didn\u2019t share his popsicles with Haney. <\/p>\n
Golf World obtained a copy of The Big Miss last week and gave it to golfdigestcanada.ca to read. <\/p>\n
Here are seven more things the book teaches us about Woods: <\/p>\n
Tiger\u2019s daredevil streak extended elsewhere<\/b><\/p>\n
Considering his SEAL experiences, it stands to reason that Tiger was not averse to taking risks. Woods had a well-known affinity for ocean diving, and Haney recalls the first time Woods went skiing in Park City, Utah, with his wife, Elin, Mark O\u2019Meara and his wife and Haney and his wife. Woods began on a beginner\u2019s slope then decided he would attempt something more challenging. A friend of O\u2019Meara\u2019s, an expert skier, advised Woods to turn often in order to control his speed.<\/p>\n
"Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll be fine," Tiger replied, at which point he took off straight down the hill, eschewed turns and quickly gained speed.<\/p>\n
Weight training became an obsession for Woods<\/b><\/p>\n
Woods\u2019 workout regimen veered far from golf specific and was likely detrimental to his game. It also led to odd injuries:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Woods hurt his right Achilles tendon doing Olympic-style lifts, friend Corey Carroll told Haney. Woods claimed the injury came from running while testing new shoes for Nike. "Getting the right Achilles treated was the reason Dr. Anthony Galea was called in," Haney writes, alluding to the blood-spinning therapy that Galea administered to Woods at his home.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Haney witnessed Woods limping after running 60-yard sprints while wearing a weighted vest, an idea he got from a friend, Vencie Glenn, a former NFL safety.<\/p>\n
Tiger\u2019s closest confidant? Mark Steinberg<\/b><\/p>\n
Former basketball stars Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley were thought to be close buddies with Tiger, but Haney said he didn\u2019t see them much with the golfer. Barkley, with whom Haney worked on the Golf Channel show "The Haney Project," wanted to become closer to Woods, but "he was baffled by Tiger being closed off and keeping him at a distance."<\/p>\n
Haney writes that the point man for Team Tiger, agent Mark Steinberg, was his "closest confidant" and that Steinberg "considered Tiger a good person trapped in a very complicated and demanding life, and he cut Tiger a lot of slack when he was being uncommunicative or stubborn."<\/p>\n
Tiger began to neglect his short game<\/b><\/p>\n
Woods had built a reputation for being a sponge when it came to the golf swing, but Haney learned that wasn\u2019t actually the case. "I realized right away that he was going to be a difficult student," and that "he was something of a chronic experimenter who could get off track without guidance."<\/p>\n
Haney writes that one misconception of Tiger was that he was more familiar with the golf swing than his PGA Tour contemporaries, a realization he came to not long after they started working together.<\/p>\n
Haney was also concerned that Woods wasn\u2019t as dedicated to his short game after coming back from knee surgery after the U.S. Open in 2008. "There was still room for improvement, and he knew it," Haney writes. "I worried that not taking that on was a sign that his drive was beginning to wane in the same way it had in early 2007."<\/p>\n
Tiger was selective with his friendships on tour:<\/b> <\/p>\n
Woods was more likely to befriend players who did not pose a competitive threat. <\/p>\n
Writes Haney: "Those he genuinely liked tended to be quiet, modest, hardworking guys like Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker whose ability he respected but whose talent didn\u2019t elevate them to the position of serious rival."<\/p>\n
A player whom he was not particularly fond of was Ian Poulter, who after a practice round at Oakmont a few weeks before the 2007 U.S. Open "was cheeky enough to ask Tiger, \u2018How are we getting home?\u2019 " Both lived in the Orlando area, and Poulter knew that Woods had a private jet standing by. Though Woods never extended an invitation, Poulter showed up at the jetport anyway. "Can you believe how this d\u2014 mooched a ride on my plane?" Woods wrote in a text to Haney as the three of them were flying back to Orlando.<\/p>\n
Woods wanted to keep working with Haney after they split<\/b><\/p>\n
When Haney resigned as Woods\u2019 instructor, Tiger insisted that they would still work together. "For some reason that I still can\u2019t figure out, he just didn\u2019t want to let go," writes Haney. " \u2018Tiger,\u2019 I said, \u2018if you ever want me to watch you or help you with an opinion, as a friend I\u2019ll be happy to do it. But we\u2019re not going to work together. I\u2019m never going to be your coach again.\u2019 " When Woods reasserted, "We\u2019re still going to work together," Haney replied, "No, we\u2019re not."<\/p>\n
After rehab, Elin wanted Tiger to quit golf for two years<\/b> <\/p>\n
After Woods returned from a month-long stint in a Mississippi clinic, "he described his therapy as \u2018horrible, the worst experience I\u2019ve ever been through,\u2019 and \u2018the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done,\u2019 but he didn\u2019t offer any details," Haney writes. When he asked about Elin, Woods said, "We\u2019re trying," and that Elin "wants me to not play golf for two years."<\/p>\n
In his final chapter, "Summing Up," Haney cites his wish list. <\/p>\n
It included this: "I wish Tiger had come back from rehab a different person. Not a lot different, just a little warmer and more open \u2026 I realize now that as hard as I tried to understand Tiger, he tried just as hard not to let me."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hank Haney\u2019s book on Tiger Woods hits the shelves today and as this excerpt illustrates, there are a few eye brow raising revelations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18008,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3056],"class_list":["post-18007","sn-blog-entry","type-sn-blog-entry","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","sports-golf"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-blog-entry\/18007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-blog-entry"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sn-blog-entry"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-blog-entry\/18007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18007"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}