Wednesday, July 5, 2000
Knowing Woods like a book makes Harmon
a success
By Ed Sherman
Chicago Tribune
(KRT)
Butch Cassidy had the Sundance Kid. Butch Harmon has Tiger Woods.
Or is it the other way around?
This Butch hardly gets first billing.
But Tiger and Butch seem to have a good thing going. Woods wins
tournaments, and his coach, Harmon, wins the accolades as his
guru.
Not since Jack Nicklaus worked with Jack Grout has there been
a more famous or successful teacher-coach relationship. Harmon
is the man behind the man in Team Tiger.
Harmon, the son of 1948 Masters winner Claude Harmon, has been
working with Woods since 1993. Woods entrusts his swing, which
is to say his fortune, to Harmon.
“You can feel that he's always there for you,” Woods
said. “He's doing the right thing. And there's never been
a time I've questioned him. We've talked things through, but there's
never a doubt that he and I are on the same page.”
And that page has been written with hard work. Harmon, 56, thought
his onetime student, Greg Norman, was the hardest worker he ever
saw. Then Woods came along.
Woods' normal practice session with Harmon consists of more than
1,000 swings. That's a sobering thought for weekend players: If
the best player in the world needs 1,000 swings a day on a consistent
basis to get something down, that once-a-week bucket of balls
at the range probably won't get it done.
Harmon videotapes every lesson and all of Woods' tournaments.
“Butch loves to watch film,” Woods said. “He'll
sit there for hours on end, analyzing, critiquing, trying to find
something in my swing when I'm not swinging well or things I'm
doing right when I am swinging well.”
“Tiger is like a sponge,” Harmon said. “He likes
to soak in knowledge. He's always curious.”
Harmon agreed with Woods that significant changes in his swing
were needed, even after his record run at the 1997 Masters. Woods
needed to come up with a swing that was built to last.
Here's what Woods did:
“I changed the left-hand grip, made it weaker. Narrowed the
stance to get the club up quicker. Rounded off the left arm to
make it flatter at the top. Try to keep the club out in front
of me, and then arc it off with a shorter follow-through.”
Do all those things, and maybe you, too, can win the U.S. Open
by 15 shots.
Top local amateur Joel Hirsch went to see Harmon at his school
outside of Las Vegas last year. He immediately understood why
Woods has faith in Harmon.
“He is one fabulous teacher,” Hirsch said. “He
made everything very straight forward. He's what made Tiger great.”
The relationship has been beneficial for both sides. Woods pays
Harmon a reported $1 million a year to be available at Woods'
whim.
That's just the beginning for Harmon. The Woods spotlight has
kept him in constant demand. He's even a commentator for British
television for 10 tournaments a year.
Harmon is a regular on the Golf Channel. Just after Masters, he
was scheduled to be a guest on “Academy Live.” Minutes
before the start of the show, Woods arrived in the studio and
shocked host Peter Kessler as a surprise guest.
Together, Woods and Harmon put on a memorable show, giving viewers
a sneak peak at their methods and relationship. It showed a different
side of Woods. He was loose, open, completely enjoying the give-and-take.
“We have so much fun out there,” Woods said. “We
could be out there four or five hours banging the ball. We're
both sweating. But we're loving it.”
(c) 2000, Chicago Tribune.
Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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