On this day, Haney is asking a lot. A range attendant tees up 50 balls in a line, across the entire width of the practice area. Concentrating on one of three mechanical keys that underpin the lesson plan, Barkley moves down the row hitting the balls with a driver, pausing only to shuffle his feet in place so he doesn't have time to think about the hitch.
Haney calls out instructions -- "OK, now just the left hand" or "Keep your right arm on top" -- and Barkley gets into a smooth, hitch-free rhythm. At the end of the row, Barkley is sweating through his shirt, and he straightens up to stretch his cranky back. He turns to look behind him, where the range attendant is just finishing another row of 50 balls and checking it with a string to make sure it's straight.
"Ass----," he says with a pretend scowl, and the group dissolves into laughter.
WORK AND PLAY: Just because you hit 750 balls a day doesn't mean there isn't time for fun. The cameras followed Barkley and Haney for barbecue on the road as well as pool and "Monday Night Football" at Haney's house outside Dallas.
The bigger challenge will be taking the pieces he has learned during the first three months and putting them together on the course, when the score counts. "Basketball came natural for me," Barkley says between instruction sessions. "Coaches might give you a little something, but I knew I could throw a chest pass, a bounce pass or underhanded -- whatever it took.
"In golf, you have to be in certain positions no matter what. That's where I'm trying to get to," he says. "Hank's broken it down for me, but realistically, I can't think of three or four things at the same time. I hit five balls and think about one thing, then five more balls and think about the next thing. It's not natural yet, but I'll get there."
The first real-world test came in a nine-hole round at Vaquero, outside Dallas. Barkley sprayed tee shots on the first two holes with noticeable hitches, but made two pars to finish after Haney held his head to remind him not to drop it through impact. "He might go out there and spray it a little bit, but he's on the right track," says Haney. "His goal is to break 85 again, but that's not what I want. I want him to break 80 at Tahoe. I want him to play golf."
Barkley certainly understands the stakes. "In basketball, I played with guys who wouldn't take the big shot, and I'd get so frustrated with them," he says. "No matter how many big shots I missed, I wanted it the next night. But now I know what it's like to not be able to do it -- and not because you're scared. I want to get this right."
And when he does?
"I made a top-10 list of the guys who made fun of me -- Tiger's No. 1, and Michael Jordan is on there -- and they'd better get ready."
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