Hank Haney: Tiger’s the king of the stingers a Hoylake VIP!

Tiger Woods is back but not in the manner he would have wished.

Friday’s missed cut was not in the script of his countdown to next month’s Open Championship.

Even so, after his three-month lay-off with a back injury, some would have you believe he still only has to turn up at Hoylake next month to secure his 15th Major.

After all, when The Open was last played there in 2006, Woods shot 18-under-par and seemed well on course to obliterate Jack Nicklaus’ record of Majors. But his former coach Hank Haney pours cold water on that.

He is in no doubt Woods is still the No. 1 player in the world. But he reels off a whole number of reasons why the odds are stacked against his former student.

“A lot of people want to forget that what he did that week at Royal Liverpool eight years ago was arguably the finest exhibition of ball-striking at any Major Championship,” he claims.

“Tiger never missed a shot and he holed a 4 iron. Back then, the key stroke for him to win at Hoylake was the stinger shot the low, driven, running, iron off the tee and he has not played that all year.

“As much as people go on about how much that shot was the game winner for him, if the course is soft, there is no way he can hit that shot. It won’t work.

“Another crucial factor was that he was the only player in the field who could have employed that strategy around Hoylake.

“No-one else could hit an iron off the tee like he did because they did not have that low stinger shot and they could not hit it as far as him. Hitting that 2 iron out there, he was just going to be short of the bunkers with his maximum distance.

“So his iron was the perfect shot for the perfect conditions. But if he doesn’t have firm fairways, he might as well hit a driver like everybody else or he is going to be back there hitting 3 irons into every hole.

“Hoylake is not a short course if you are hitting irons off the tee into soft fairways.”

Before his return to action, Tiger confessed to feeling old, given the number of young guns coming up behind him. Haney believes Woods’ lifetime desire to break Nicklaus’ haul of 18 Majors holds the key.

“There is no question his desire and work ethic will determine if he can do it,” states Haney.

“I’ve seen a drop in his practice time, and while that could be due to injuries, when I was with him there was a difference in his desire to work from when we started together to when we parted ways.

If that returns to the level of his halcyon days, then he will be the No. 1 player again.

“He is by far the best player out there. But it is a question of whether or not he gives 100% again. If he does, he’ll continue to close the gap on Nicklaus. Having said that, the clock is moving fast and five Majors is a lot of Majors.”