Quiz Time

[RC]

So how many majors has Tiger won under Haney, and how many under Harmon?

[iacas]

So how many majors has Tiger won under Haney, and how many under Harmon?

Off the top of my head, 8 and 6.

[RC]

I'm pretty sure it was 8 with Butch and 6 with Hank... but it could be the other way around. I am just trying to remember as well. He switched to Hank in early 2004 (March?), so he was with Butch from as early as 1993 (at least part time) until the switch to Hank. I know his first was the '97 Masters. He made one significant swing change under Harmon for consistency and was trying another just before switching to Haney, where an entirely different approach was undertaken. I can't even remember what I shot yesterday, so this could be a little off as well.

[Grndslmhttr3]

Off the top of my head, 8 and 6.

Other way around, I believe.

[Chilli Dipper]

'97 Masters, '99 PGA, the Tiger Slam, '02 Masters and US Open: that's eight with Harmon.

[RC]

Yeah, I thought it was 8 with Harmon. I don't know the swing coach with the most majors earned by his players, but it could well be B. Harmon, and is certainly the Harmon family. Funny thing is he said his dad and brothers were better teachers than he was, so I do think the Harmon family must have coached the most major winners of all time. I knew the dad, but not well, and Dick Harmon a lot better (he passed away in 2006, and there is an excellent tribute to him on Sandtrap) but none as well as Butch, and they were all good teachers, sort of the first family of golf instruction over a long period of time. The brothers were all listed by Golf Digest as top 50 teachers and the father actually won the Masters as well. Another pro, Jackie Burke, of no small fame himself, was at Champions in Houston, where at one time these guys were the pros at Champions, River Oaks, and Lochinvar. Their combined output of high calibre tour pros is likely unparallelled.

[iacas]

Yeah, I thought it was 8 with Harmon.

So was I. That's why I answered 8 and 6... chronologically. I didn't pay attention to the question enough to see that you'd asked about Haney first. Sorry.

[RC]

Funny, I had a suspicion you have flipped the order of the names inadvertently. I just looked up the second most famous Harmon, Dick, and was surprised to see his list of attributed players (only a couple I knew previously): Fred Couples, Jay Haas, Craig Stadler, Lanny Wadkins, Steve Elkington, and 2009 US Open winner Lucas Glover. I know there were many others. What is surprising how each of these more famous guys had a different swing and Dick still worked with them, obviously refining what they did. There are sort of two extreme ends of types of teachers: those that try to model a swing to a set specific set of positions and those that make what I call refining adjustments to existing swing types. Both can be successful apparently. I am making no judgement at all, just raising an interesting question. I think Haney sort of falls into the the first camp. Obviously it must be a challenge to be the swing coach of guys with very different swings. I wonder what you tell such obviously different swingers? That is something I had not thought much about. I suppose the first rule of teaching should be, "Do no evil." I cannot imagine trying to get Stadler to swing like Wadkins, for example.