Every conversation
between the pupil and the teacher started the same way.
"I can't hit a shot,"
Tiger Woods used to say with just enough sarcasm that Butch Harmon wasn't
overly alarmed.
But something was
different that afternoon in May.
Woods was on the
practice range at Isleworth, the golf course in Orlando, Fla., where he
had spent so many long, lonely hours out of the spotlight working on the
swing refinements that Harmon had been teaching for more than a year.
As soon as Woods
finished, he punched in Harmon's number on his cell phone for a conversation
that wasn't anything like the others.
"I got it, Butchy!"
Woods told him. "I got it."
"There was total
joy in his voice," Harmon said from his Las Vegas office. "It was like
the light went on. Everything we had been doing, all the changes, felt
natural. And he had gotten his confidence back. He was at the point where
he knew he could not be beaten if he played his game."
Light on, lights
out.
In his first round
after Woods "got it," he threw down a 61 in the GTE Byron Nelson Classic
and probably should have won except for one swing that led to a triple
bogey in the third round.
No problem. Woods
went to Germany the next week and beat a field that included six of the
top 10 players in the world. He came back across the Atlantic and beat
Vijay Singh in the Memorial with a short game that left tournament host
Jack Nicklaus speechless.
Including unofficial
events and his prime-time exhibition with David Duval, Woods played 13
more events the rest of the year. He won nine of them.
He swept player of
the year honors from three organizations, no surprise since Woods had the
most victories on tour in 25 years, the longest winning streak in 46 years
and won more money than the combined earnings of the next two guys behind
him.
The only debate is
who felt more gratified -- the pupil or the teacher?
"I take tremendous
satisfaction out of this," Harmon said. "We've been together since he was
16. We built this golf swing together."
It was truly a team
effort.
Woods needed the
eyes and experience of Harmon, his teacher the past seven years, to bring
about changes in a swing that already was good enough to win the 1997 Masters
in record fashion. Likewise, Harmon's teaching would have been wasted if
not for Woods's burning desire to succeed.
Harmon spent five
years working with Greg Norman, reputed as one of the hardest workers in
the game.
"Tiger works even
harder than that," Harmon said. "He does a lot on his own. A lot of his
practice is in seclusion, so no one really knows how much he puts into
his game. He's just an incredibly dedicated young man. He has an inward
desire to be the best player the planet has ever seen."
This wasn't a complete
overhaul, much like what Nick Faldo and David Leadbetter went through in
the mid-1980s. Besides, Faldo was a rising British star but had won nothing
of substance when he decided to revamp his swing.
Woods felt he needed
to get better after winning the Masters by 12 strokes with a record score
of 12-under 270.
"That took tremendous
intestinal fortitude to win the Masters the way he did, and then change
his swing," Harmon said. "But he knew for longevity that it had to be better."
Harmon described
the changes in three parts.
• The arms got
more on plane, allowing for a more shallow backswing.
• The clubface
angle, which had been closed, became more square. That gave Woods better
control of his distance.
• The arms
stayed in front on his downswing, which eliminated the one shot that always
got him into trouble -- high and to the right.
Woods's take on the
evolution of his swing is much more succinct.
"Everything about
my golf swing is different from when I won in '97," he said. "It's unbelievable."
So are the results.
And remember, Woods
is still only 23, still about seven years away from reaching his prime.
Harmon spent last
week in Orlando having dinner with Woods. It was a time to lay down some
goals for 2000, and a time to reflect on a banner year -- for the pupil
and the teacher.
"I've seen him grow
up as a golfer and grow up as a person," Harmon said. "As a teacher at
any level, we love to see them improve. One thing I've always known --
and this year is proves it as much as any -- there is nothing this kid
can't do."
