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His game's under water

Shaun Powell

June 20, 2004

The more you watch Tiger Woods sift through the weeds for his tee shot, beg for birdies, groan in frustration, pound his club, remove himself from serious contention, then sip from a glass he considers half full, maybe Butch Harmon is right.

Maybe Woods does think "denial" is a river in Africa.

That's the buzzword of the U.S. Open, first spoken by Harmon, the famous swing coach who was a prominent member of Team Tiger when Woods was clobbering everyone in golf. Now a regular commentator for Sky TV, a Britain-based network, Harmon was asked about the world's No. 1-ranked player whose winless streak at the majors should stretch to eight today. Unlike Tiger, Harmon found the fairway.

"For him to stand there in every interview and say he's getting close and he feels really good about what he's doing," Harmon said, "I think he's in denial." And what did Woods do yesterday after shooting a 73 and falling nine shots behind the leader? He stood for an interview and said he's getting real close and also mentioned how good he feels about things.

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"I'll tell you what," Woods added. "I'm hitting it well."

Denial? Or just defensive? Here's what we know: This isn't the Tiger we saw at Bethpage, the last time he won a major and the last time he and Harmon were tight.

Whether his problems are because of his experimental swing, or golf being a brutal sport, or or the absence of Harmon, who can tell? Or maybe our expectations are obscene.

He did take lots of baggage from his unimpressive third round, quite literally actually. After Tiger's second shot on 18 took four bounces before landing in the cup for eagle, caddie Steve Williams playfully tossed his boss the golf bag and watched him trudge up the hill, applying some much-needed comic relief on another tense day at Shinnecock.

Given his golf game, caddying is "probably what I should've been doing," Woods joked.

Some might say Tiger should've been doing something else: dialing Harmon.

They were a productive team, one giving advice and the other implementing the advice. Except one thing: Tiger wasn't too big on the "they" part. To Woods, he won those tournaments; Harmon only offered assistance, like any other employee. Why they parted company isn't totally clear. Woods said he took what he needed from Harmon and moved on, the same way he did with his father and other coaches in his life. Nothing personal. Just a natural evolution.

Always in search of perfection, Woods now is tinkering with his swing without Harmon, and any benefits of change have been missing in the majors for two full years now. Of course, the longer Tiger goes without winning a major, the more it will give the impression that Woods is wrong and Harmon is right. The more Tiger misses fairways and needs incredible approach shots to save pars or make birdies, the smarter Harmon looks. You figure Tiger's troubles have done wonders for Harmon's fees.

"He won't tell anyone what he's working on," Harmon said. "He's very secretive about the work he's doing, for some reason. I don't quite understand that. I think he's working on the wrong thing."

Harmon further tweaked Tiger with this: "When Tiger Woods got here Monday, he should've looked at this golf course, this setup and thought, 'Wow, I could win this tournament by six, seven, eight shots.' That's the old Tiger Woods. The Tiger Woods I saw was missing fairways with irons."

Just a few days ago, speaking with reporters in Manhattan, Harmon recalled how Phil Mickelson approached him and asked him not to accept any calls with Orlando area codes. That's where Tiger lives. According to Harmon, when Tiger crashed at the Masters, Mickelson said, "I noticed he didn't call you."

Naturally, Tiger was ruffled yesterday by Harmon's comments and showed more irritation than he did when two of his approach shots on the 10th hole came racing back down the slope.

"Obviously, he doesn't really know what I'm working on," Tiger huffed. "He's never asked me and I haven't talked to him about it and no one knows. I don't understand why he would even say anything like that. For him to go off and say things like that, I don't understand where he's coming from."

Maybe watching Woods shoot 70 or higher five times in his last seven rounds of majors might have something to do with it.

Mostly, this is silly. Woods remains a threat in any tournament he enters. Even Jack Nicklaus had an 0-for-12 dry spell in the majors. When and if the day comes when Tiger is missing cuts, Harmon may have a point.

That said, Woods did mention how a big round today might give him the U.S. Open title.

He must be swimming up an African river.