If you watched Tiger Woods during his Tuesday practice round ahead of the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, you would have seen him walking with a swing coach. It’s not necessarily his swing coach, but this still qualifies as news.
Since Woods and his swing coach of six years, Hank Haney, parted ways in May, observers have wondered whom Woods would tap next for the job. When asked what he was doing in lieu of a live body, he’d simply reply, “Video.”
Since tying for fourth at the Masters in April and the U.S. Open in June, Woods has appeared lost on the golf course. At last month’s British Open at St. Andrews, a course where he dominated the field in 2000 and 2005, he grinded to place tied for 23rd. While he wasn’t known to be the straightest driver of the ball, he was always able to make up for it around the greens. But this year he’s been putting horrendously, missing almost-gimme putts. And then last week from the tee at the WGC-Firestone Invitational, he hit just about everything except the fairway and finished tied for 78th.
Enter Sean Foley. The Canadian-born coach works on some of the best swings in the game, including Hunter Mahan, who won at Firestone, and Sean O’Hair. Foley was present Tuesday morning to watch Mahan and O’Hair. Those two just happened to be playing with Woods.
Foley said Woods asked him to look at his swing and on two holes he filmed Woods’s swing, according to the Associated Press. When questioned if the two were working together, Foley replied, “I wouldn’t say that. But the possibility is there.”
Click here for more on this story from the Wall Street Journal
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.