All Tiger Woods has to do is call (or text, or FaceTime, or tweet, or send a carrier pigeon), and Butch Harmon would delay his retirement to try to resuscitate his ex-student’s flagging career.
Butch Harmon would take Tiger back — if Woods would just call him
Butch Harmon says he would be ‘more than happy’ to help Tiger Woods get out of his slump but his former student has to call him and that will probably never happen.
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“If he wanted, I’d be more than happy to spend a couple of hours and give him my opinion,” Harmon told Tim Rosaforte for Monday’s edition of Golf World. “I don’t think he would ask because it goes against his pride.”
While highly unlikely, a reunion of the two, who split in 2003, would make the golf punditry ecstatic. It would also signal that Woods was not too proud to beg for help.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Rosaforte wrote, “and these are desperate times for Tiger.”
Rosaforte noted that Harmon, 71, said he was on the back nine of his own career as one of the preeminent instructors of his time and would only enlist as a part-time member of Team Tiger. After all, Harmon has his schedule filled with appointments for the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler.
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But the contrast between Woods’ physical and mental woes and the flourishing games of many of Harmon’s current charges could not be starker. Woods shot a career-worst 82 at the Phoenix Open and withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open, while Johnson lost in a playoff at Riviera on Sunday a week after finishing tied for fourth at Pebble. Snedeker won the AT&T National Pro-Am, and Walker is the FedEx Cup points leader.
“I think I can fix that,” Harmon said of Woods’ now legendary short-game woes. “As a fan of great golf, it’s hard to watch him pitch the ball now. You can tell it’s a total lack of confidence.”
Harmon saw Woods struggle on the practice range at Torrey Pines as he warmed up next to Fowler and applauded his ex-boss’ decision to step away from competition until he gets his game back.
“The Tiger I saw trying to make a golf swing. His body wouldn’t let him do the things he was trying to do. If I was him, I wouldn’t play until I’m healthy,” observed Harmon, who dismissed the notion that Woods needed tournament reps. “For him, the big thing is the Masters. We know he knows how to play.”
While wondering what’s next for Woods has become a rather unsatisfying parlor game, Harmon cautioned that he did not expect a rapprochement with the former world No. 1 but he wished Tiger would stop using the overly technical methods of new swing consultant Chris Como.
“I have no idea what biomechanics is,” he said. “And I’m being serious.”
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