How Tiger's Swing Has Changed

 

 

Edited by Peter Morrice

Photos by J.D. Cuban and Stephen Szurlej

 

Woods circa 1992

"Tiger's swing was a tool, like a chisel for a sculptor. ... He didn't think about where his elbow was pointing when he used the chisel. He thought about the image he was seeing." -- Rudy Duran, Woods' first instructor

Woods circa 1992

Woods circa 1992

"His arc got so much bigger. That's when he really started hitting the ball long. I thought he got too flat these last few years." -- John Anselmo, Woods' second instructor

Woods circa 1992

Woods circa 1992

"Tiger did better when we worked on motion more than positions. He picked up the importance of posture or ball position better when I would show him how to hit certain shots, which was his favorite thing. I never tried to load him up with a lot of mechanical thoughts." -- John Anselmo

Woods circa 1992

Woods circa 1992

"I think the teachers after me have done a good job, but I don't think he needed much changing, to be honest. Sure, there was a looseness to his swing, but that was just because he hadn't filled out. I liked that freedom, that full release of his body. That was beautiful. He should hold onto that." -- John Anselmo

Woods circa 1992

Woods in 2000

"I agreed with Tiger about the flaws, but I wanted to do it a piece at a time. He wanted to do it all at once. I told him it was going to be hard to play through it, and that he might want to do what Faldo did with Leadbetter and basically take a year off. He said no, and in 1998 he struggled and won only once. He had a tendency to overdo changes. I had to be very careful what I told him." -- Butch Harmon

Woods in 2000

Woods in 2000

"There are no mechanics at all when he's really under the gun. That's how he should play all the time." -- Jack Nicklaus

Woods in 2000

Woods in 2000

The challenge was to "match the speed of the arms with the unwind of the body, which wasn't easy because Tiger had one of the fastest unwinds of the body anyone had ever seen. I decided he had to have more of a three-quarter-type swing, not a full windup and a full release." -- Butch Harmon

Woods in 2000

Woods in 2000

Woods in 2000

"When he drove the ball in the fairway, he was nearly unbeatable. That's what I kept trying to drive into him. But it didn't take." -- Butch Harmon

Woods in 2009

"I think it's fair to say that Butch had a better body to work with than I did. With me, he started looking more like a linebacker than a golfer." -- Hank Haney

Woods in 2009

Woods in 2009

"I've always taken risks to try to become a better golfer, and that's one of the things that has gotten me this far." -- Tiger Woods

Woods in 2009

"If you look at where Tiger had the club as a young player, he was obviously way across the line. Butch went a long way to fixing that, and my first order of business was to continue to work in that direction." -- Hank Haney

Woods in 2009

Woods in 2009

Woods in 2009

"He was convinced that his golf swing was doing the damage to his knee. Everything had to revolve around saving his knee." -- Hank Haney

Woods in 2009

Woods in 2011

"What Tiger was doing wasn't efficient. He was losing tons of speed and power, some of the things that used to most separate him. And then he was getting more crooked. He couldn't hit the fairway because his alignments were not correct. Simple as that." -- Sean Foley

Woods in 2011

Woods in 2011

Woods in 2011

Woods in 2011

"They're very different swings. It's one of the things I struggled with when I worked with Hank, trying to relearn some new things and going away from what I did with Butch. The old motor patterns are still there." -- Tiger Woods

Woods in 2011

Woods in 2011

Woods in 2011

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