We’re now just over one month away from Tiger Woods’ latest comeback.
He played his last competitive round at the US PGA Championship in August and has taken time off in the hope it will ease his on-going back problems.
The former World No 1 is now hitting full shots on the range.
And if, as scheduled, he tees it up at his annual fund-raising event for the Tiger Woods Foundation, the Hero World
Challenge, in December, the $64,000 question is whether or not he’ll have a new coach in tow.
Tiger has dismissed with the services of Sean Foley, the third swing coach he has worked with following on from Butch Harmon and Hank Haney.
You could argue, justifiably, that with his record, Tiger Woods does not need a coach at all considering his prodigious feats with club and ball.
David Leadbetter was the trail blazer in the ‘golf guru’ department.
He is in no doubt that, with the many ways of swinging a golf club that produce a winning formula, Woods is simply looking for the one that got away.
Namely the Holy Grail that at one time made him nigh-on invincible of the golf course.
“Butch Harmon is the master of this,” says Leadbetter. “If you look at a player like Phil Mickelson, who ostensibly has not changed his swing through the years, Butch gave him those little feelers and it clicked.
“That underlines why you don’t want to change a player’s style. You just want to add a little technique to his style. If you change their style, you change their mindset.”
Of course, the cynics will point to the great Ben Hogan and the sermon for his success that he preached over and over again.
“It’s in the dirt,” he insisted, referring to the thousands of balls he hit in his quest for the perfect swing.
Leadbetter is in awe of Hogan’s achievements, but he respectfully points to the changes from those far-off days to today’s jet-setting golf world.
“Great players through the years have had great talent and great athleticism,” he says.
“But in this day and age, you only have to look at the amount of tournaments they are playing all over the world to know you are not comparing apples to apples.
“Yes, Tiger changed it all in a sense, but it was Nick Faldo who paved the way.
“Golfers these days are great athletes, and I say that knowing you might cite Tim Herron and one or two other players who are not slaves to the gym.
“They are examples that you don’t have to be so obsessed with fitness, just be skilled with great hand-eye coordination.”
Whether Tiger arrives at his tournament next month with a new coach or not, Leadbetter insists the key to Woods’ attempt to be the player he was earlier in his career is simple.
“It is all about confidence,” he says.
“All the great players in the past all had that inner belief that exists in ALL top athletes. In this game today, it is easy to lose it. But the real top players have the momentum and the ability to move on from where they are.
“If you could bottle it, you’d be mega rich.”
Despite all his off-course controversies, Tiger remains mega-rich. But he’d love to find that bottle!
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