Tiger Woods’ next swing coach to be Butch Harmon? Don’t bet on it

Tiger Woods and Butch Harmon, together again, after the 14-time major champion announced on Monday he had fired swing coach Sean Foley? That would be a good bet, according to Twitter as well as an Irish oddsmaker, who ranks Tiger’s former coach twice removed as No. 1 on the hit parade of potential swing guru No. 4.

Paddy Power has Harmon, who currently has his hands full monitoring Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, at even money to return to Team Tiger after an 11-year absence as Woods’ eyes on the practice range (he coached Woods from 1993-2003).

Social media speculation clamored for Tiger and Butch to kiss and make up, though calmer minds sought to shoot down such speculation.

The list included some reasonable alternatives (David Leadbetter at 7-1 and Rory McIlroy’s coach Michael Bannon at 12-1), as well as a few humorous possibilities — the golfer’s mother, Kultida Woods, comes in at 300-1 odds, his ex-wife Elin Nordegren at 500-1, and NBC analyst Johnny Miller, at 66-1.

And then there was the guy who’s made a cottage industry out of criticizing Woods’ Foley-overhauled swing, Brandel Chamblee, at 20-1.

Chamblee, to no one’s surprise, said on Golf Channel on Monday that the Foley firing was way overdue.

“If Tiger were a football team and Foley were the coach,” Chamblee said, “he’d have been fired a long time ago.”

Chamblee’s colleague and Tiger insider, Notah Begay III, claimed to be taken by surprise by the Woods-Foley news.

“I didn’t even know that that had happened, to be perfectly honest,” Begay, who’s been heads down prepping for his annual charity event, the NB3 Foundation Challenge, told SBNation by phone on Monday. “I don’t know what Tiger’s relationship was with Sean. I know that they had some goals and they tried to pursue those goals together and I’m sure that Tiger felt like maybe he wasn’t achieving the type of consistency, tee to green, that he had hoped and he’s well within his rights to make those changes.”

Begay opined that Woods could go it alone.

“I don’t think Tiger Woods necessarily needs a coach, needs somebody to serve as a sounding board of information that originates from Tiger himself,” Begay said. “I think that Tiger has enough experience and understanding of technique and mechanics and the feel, the sensations related to certain shots that he can pretty much navigate himself through most challenges related to the golf swing.”

Begay also noted that he was unaware of any would-be coach making the “short list.”

“Tiger’s waiting for his body to heal and then he’s going try and make some sort of informed decision on who might best facilitate the next phase of his career,” said Begay.