Butch Harmon shoots down rumors of reuniting with Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods parting ways with swing coach Sean Foley did not exactly send shock waves through the golf world. Monday’s announcement that the 14-time major champion had given his instructor of four years his walking papers, however, sparked widespread speculation about who’ll be videotaping the fading superstar’s swing when he returns to competition in 2015.

Spoiler alert: despite what those on social media and bookmaking have predicted, it won’t be Butch Harmon.

Foley signed on with Woods in 2010 and presided over Woods’ lost 2014 season in which his oft-injured pupil played just seven PGA Tour events, his last a missed cut at the PGA Championship. Tiger underwent surgery in March for a bad back that eventually ended his year and ultimately his relationship with Foley, with whom he won eight regular tournaments but no majors.

In announcing the split on Monday, Woods noted “there is no timetable for hiring” a Foley replacement.

For sure, the downside of Harmon reuniting with the golfer he coached for 10 years, from 1993 to 2003, far outweighed the benefits, according to golf writer Steve Elling.

“He’s getting a guy with diminished capacities who’s going to be forever compared to when he was at the peak of his powers,” Elling said during a Monday @ByTheMinGolf podcast with Golf Digest’s John Huggan.

Then there was the whole “Phil” thing

“Can you imagine having [Mickelson] and Tiger on the same staff where they’re on the practice range at the same time and Butch has got to figure out which one of those guys he’s got to go babysit?” Elling hypothesized about Harmon, who is Lefty’s go-to-guy. “Butch doesn’t need the hassle anymore that comes with Tiger.”

Okay, so if not Butch, then who on a short list of potential coaches would be a good fit for the fading superstar?

“No names immediately come to mind,” said Huggan. “I don’t think any of the big names are going to touch him.”

Certainly Hank Haney, who fired Woods in a text in 2010 and then wrote a tell-all book, “The Big Miss,” about their time together, is out of the running.

Chuck Cook, who coaches Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner, as well as Henrik Stenson’s mentor Pete Cowen are popular choices among those who handicap such issues. With Woods’ affinity for the scientific approach to the golf swing, Cook’s reliance on TrackMan would seem to be a good match, Butch’s son Claude Harmon III told Hoggard.

Cowen’s technical methodology would also sync with Woods’ approach, noted Huggan, who nevertheless believes that nuts and bolts are not what the winner of 79 PGA Tour events required.

“Tiger has had a driving problem now for a long time and it’s getting worse, and it’s a mental thing as much as physical,” Huggan said. “He’s got the yips with his driver ... and I don’t think any teacher -- Foley or anyone else -- would have been able to do too much with what Tiger’s got going on in between his ears right now.”

Many Tiger watchers -- Butch Harmon included -- averred that Woods needs nothing but a healthy body when he finally returns to golf, slated at this point to be at his unofficial World Challenge in December.

“I don’t think he needs a swing coach,” Harmon said to Hoggard. “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.’ Only he knows what his body can and can’t do. In this day and age you can get all the technical coaching you need with TrackMan. He’s good enough to do it himself.”

Woods’ good friend and former Stanford teammate, Notah Begay III, agreed.

“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,” the four-time tour winner and Golf Channel analyst told SB Nation on Monday. “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.”

Besides, if Woods takes himself on as a client, he would not let anyone else down if he blows off practice.

“I know Sean [Foley’s] been frustrated by Tiger’s work ethic,” Elling said. “Tiger doesn’t show up and do the same amount of prep work on site at tournaments like he used to, I don’t think he’s putting in the time in the batting cage, so to speak, like he used to, and he’s also been injured.”

Elling opined that “the fire is not burning as bright in Tiger’s belly as it used to, and that’s completely understandable.

“He’s only been doing this since he was three years old,” Elling said. “He’s been in the circus for an awful long time.”

The question is, who will join Woods under the Big Top for his next act?