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As I noted earlier this week, I’ve yet to read Haney’s book all the way through and will post my own review on it as soon as I do.
But there’s some serious blow back from the vacuum that he’s created and it’s all centering around the ‘professional code’ that many of his fellow instructors believe he completely ignored with writing the book. A couple of days ago I posted an article about Rick Smith taking dead-aim at Haney without any reservations whatsoever, and since Smith spoke out, several others have felt obliged to give their two cents as well. All of the quotes below are courtesy of THIS ‘Golf Central’ Golf Channel news segment.
“Within the realm of coaching there are a number of things that are said in confidence. There are things that players discuss with you that are very confidential, how they are thinking, their life outside of golf that should not be written about. If it was just about the golf game that would be OK. The golf swing is on public display and I have no problem commenting on that, but nothing that would be personal.” ~ Dale Lynch, swing coach for Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley and Matt Goggin
“If there’s something about him and his wife or his kids or his phobias – those are out of bounds. There are certain parts you don’t mess with, that would be out of bounds no matter who you were. But if you’re giving insight into the person you are teaching there is nothing wrong with that. I don’t think Hank gave any type of tomahawk to Tiger, he simply wanted to write about his time with the best player of all time.” ~ Randy Smith, swing coach for Ryan Palmer and Colt Knost
“When you’re an instructor you become part of a player’s inner circle and in doing so you learn a lot of personal things. What Hank is doing might set a bad precedent going forward when a player is looking at hiring a swing coach. In my books I’ve talked about other players but only from an instructional standpoint, which is fine.” ~ David Leadbetter, swing coach for Michelle Wie and Trevor Immelman
It’ll be interesting to see if Butch Harmon decides to capture part of the spotlight and comment about Haney in the coming days and weeks as well, especially since Haney referenced him several times throughout the first couple of chapters. I also find it interesting that Sean Foley has stayed out of the fray, but I’m gathering that Tiger has allowed Steiny to speak on behalf of the team and prefers to minimize the distractions that the book has created.
Haney has taken to the airwaves to explain/defend his right to write the book, as well as his credibility with some of the content. He’s not fared too well, especially as it relates to THIS audio podcast earlier this week from ESPN’s Mike and Mike morning talk show on ESPN Radio. One thing appears certain… all indications suggest that Hank Haney has officially offed himself as a Tour instructor, at least given the fallout by his fellow instructors. Then again, maybe this was Haney’s exit strategy from the Tour Limelight all along.
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