Yes he does !

In  April Tiger played in the US Masters and finished an amazing 4th, after being out of golf for around five months, he has since played in several PGA tour events and not performed well, he had to pull out of the Players due to neck problems.

His latest event the WGC at Firestone was his worst four round total in his professional career, eighteen over par, he hit five fairways day one, three fairways day two, seven fairways day three, day four I dont have the stats but he had his worst round of the week a 77.

To quote Tiger,” I am not hitting the ball well, I am not chipping well, I can`t hole a putt, and my driving is poor”

TIGER Stats.

He was79 of 80 in driving accuracy, G.I.R. he was 77th out of 80, he averaged 29.5 putts per round, the interesting stat is that he made 22 bogeys and 3 double bogeys and 10 birdies, so he dropped 28 strokes to par, and made 10 birdies.

Hunter Mahan Stats.

Driving accuracy he was 30th, G.I.R 9th, putts 26.5, he made19  birdies which ranked him 1st and 7 bogeys, no doubles.

Tiger knows his swing, but he needs a plan , a blueprint to get him back on the right track, he is too good to struggle like this , and obviously his personal life is really not sorted out and he is not the focused Tiger of old.

It is such a fine line between success and failure at this highest level of the game, you lose your technique, lose some confidence and belief and you really struggle.

So Hunter Mahan, Sean O`Hair, Justin Rose, are all coached by Sean Foley, in Orlando, and I would suggest that Tiger will go to him and work out a plan to eliminate his problems of losing height, getting the club too inside on the downswing. He needs to look at his swing in 2000 when he was in total control of his game, I know that was ten years ago now and physically we all change, but Tiger is such a great athlete he can do it.

The key question is has he got the desire to get back to the top of his game, I believe he has , and that he will play his best golf again, but only if he can deal with his personal life, get that in order and open up a new chapter to his life, I also believe that after the USPGA he will take a break to sort out his life and golf game.

What ever opinions you have about Tiger, he was an incredible golfer and did things on the course that we had never seen before, and set some amazing records.

Well all the talk of the past few months in the teaching community has just come true, Hank Haney is no longer Tigers swing coach.

I had heard that Tiger was going to leave Haney, but although the news has a different twist, a reversal of what we thought would happen, the end result is the same.

With all the upheaval in the last several months regarding Tiger, and even though he has not played or practiced that much at all, we all realised that the way Tiger was swinging the club it was not going well.

His last round at the Masters was amazing, he was all over the course, but his recovery powers were truly incredible,  he turned a probable 77 into a 69, his desire kept him up there.

But you cannot keep fighting your swing every round, you might get away with it a few times, but at the level of the PGA tour you will come up short.

He has gone from winning the US OPEN by 15 shots in 2000 and holding all four majors in one year, to fighting his swing and digging deep to finish in the top four.

Let me say that Tiger won several majors with Hank Haney, as he did with Butch Harmon, but sometimes a particular pattern of swing suits you more, and Tiger is so talented he can make almost anything work and be successful!

I believe he has his next swing coach in the wings, his name is Sean Foley, he is Canadian, works with Sean O`Hair, Hunter Mahan, and just recently our own Justin Rose has joined up. Tiger could work with anyone and be really good, we all know that, he must know by now what swing works best for him, he needs to clear his mind and refocus on getting HIS best swing back, not trying to model a way of swinging onto him.

What I see is Tiger fighting the swing, losing more distance, playing a lot of fades, in order to keep his ball in play, that is not the Tiger we saw earlier in his career, he was free flowing, attacking, I believe he is the greatest golfer in the history of the game, even though he is behind Nicklaus in the majors, he has played the most amazing golf shots throughout his career, shots that other players can only dream of, plus he has an incredible will to win, amazing fitness levels, an intimidation factor that was there for all to see, and if you were in the last group with Tiger you were going to lose! That is not the case right now.

I look on with great interest, to see what is going to happen next, I really hope we see Tiger back to his supreme best, there is a lot of work to do, with his divorce, his fitness, his swing, there are a lot of things against him, most of which he brought on himself,   but if anyone can do it he can, and if he does it will be a lot of fun to watch. Tiger we want you back to your best, we want the REAL TIGER back.

There was a lesson to be  learnt  from watching the best players at the US Masters last week.

Once again the critical area is the short game , we all know it is important and so it proved again on the last day, if you can get down in two when you miss a green, you can score, saving strokes not wasting them. It is so important, it keeps you confident, because you are still maintaining your score, it will help you  relax more on your second shots as well. 

Tiger Woods ball striking gradually got worse each round, more wayward shots appeared, but his amazing ability to see the shot and shape the ball, and not give up, kept him in touch with the leaders. He shot 69 in the last round and was all over the course, anyone else would have probably scored in the mid seventies.

So if your looking to lower your scores and become a more consistent player, you must work on your bunker shots, your chipping and putting.

We all know this but how many golfers actually practice their short game, they would rather hit the driver!

So spend  at least 60% of your  practice time improving your short game, it really will be worth it and watch your scores come down.

Tiger’s in the news but, not for his golf ! We very rarely hear anything about Tiger’s personal life , everything about his life is so well controlled, just like his golf, everything ordered, planned out and executed. Until now !

What is going on ? All his fans want to know .  I am sure we will find out soon.

Well this just shows that Tiger is human , not a machine. He can control many things out on the course, but not everything in his life. 

We can all learn from Tiger, his planning, his dedication, his mental toughness in the heat of the battle out on the golf course, but sometimes things don’t go as we like.  On the the golf course, we sometimes feel out of control and go into the downward spiral of doubt and lose our confidence .

How can you recover and regain your composure?  

Take a few deep breaths, refocus on what you want to achieve, slow down your breathing, filter out any unneccesary thoughts and focus on one thing at a time. Try it next time. It works !

Tiger Woods