The Truth About Tiger

Why the most dominant player in history decided he had to change his swing

"Achieving trust is always the final step with a change. That's the hardest thing, taking Ranger Rick to the course." --Tiger Woods

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By Jaime Diaz

Photos By Dom Furore

January 2005

For the legions conditioned to believe that Tiger Woods was invincible, 2004 was as surreal as the 81 he shot at Muirfield to end his 2002 Grand Slam bid and start his ongoing 0-for-10 streak in majors.

On the heels of a relatively disappointing 2003, the numbers that had always substantiated Woods as the game's best player no longer added up:

• Woods was supplanted by Vijay Singh as the No. 1 player in the world (and even was briefly passed by Ernie Els for No. 2).
• Had his worst year in the majors (with his best finish a tie for ninth in the British Open).
• Tied career lows for full-season victory totals (one) and position on the money list (fourth).
• Hit new depths with his percentages for driving accuracy (56.1, to rank 182nd on tour) and greens in regulation (66.9, tied for 47th).
• Fittingly, he ended the official season by failing for the first time in his last 12 tries to win after holding a third-round lead.

As Woods slipped, the once-visible summit of Mount Nicklaus seemed to fade in the foggy distance. An insidious thought crossed the game's collective mind: Is the Tiger Era over?

So cataclysmic seemed the struggle that theorists looked for causes in life issues: marriage, his father's health, burnout, injury, even ennui.

Woods probably hoped the second-guessing would be diffused when he gradually acknowledged the process of a swing change, one that had its beginnings in 2003 when he left Butch Harmon but started in earnest when he took on Hank Haney as an instructor in March 2004. Instead, the disclosure of changing the swing begged the question: Why in the heck would he do that? How could the player who from 1999 to 2002 had produced arguably the greatest golf ever played want to change his swing? It was like Michelangelo going back to chisel a more impressive six-pack on David.

Woods, who turns 29 on Dec. 30, maintained that the changes weren't as extensive as the ones he undertook from 1997-'98, calling them "refinement." But as the year went on and he finished 33 strokes behind Phil Mickelson in the majors, and as the misses to the right piled up, it became clear Woods had undertaken a formidable task. But his standard reaction to his apparent swing quagmire was always this: "I'm close."

The stoicism spurred all sorts of random analysis, from Johnny Miller insisting Woods needed to forgo a draw for a fade, to Singh opining that Woods hadn't made necessary swing adjustments to accommodate his maturing body. Meanwhile, Harmon accused Woods of being "in denial." In self-defense, Woods clung grimly to his achievement of 133 consecutive cuts made, something like Robert DeNiro as a battered Jake LaMotta proclaiming to a victorious Sugar Ray Robinson, "You didn't knock me down, Ray."

Finally, with his clubs for once not doing the talking, Woods was compelled at the season-ending Tour Championship to open up for the first time about his work with Haney and explain why he was changing. What emerged was the Tiger creed: I improve, therefore I am.

"I felt like I could get better," he says. "People thought it was asinine for me to change my swing after I won the Masters by 12 shots. ... Why would you want to change that? Well, I thought I could become better.

"If I play my best, I'm pretty tough to beat. I'd like to play my best more frequently, and that's the whole idea. That's why you make changes. I thought I could become more consistent and play at a higher level more often. ... I've always taken risks to try to become a better golfer, and that's one of the things that has gotten me this far."

Later, in the first of three one-on-one interviews, Woods was more succinct. "Only two players have ever truly owned their swings: Moe Norman and Ben Hogan. I want to own mine. That's where the satisfaction comes from."

Woods might characterize his mission as business as usual, but the real answer to "Why Tiger Changed" can be found only in the details. And it starts with another question, the most asked in golf for more than a year: Why did Tiger leave Butch?

From the time the two began working together in 1993, Woods won three straight U.S. Amateur titles and eight majors. But before the PGA Championship in 2002, Woods told Harmon that during the tournament week he wanted to spend his time on the range alone. The two stayed in tenuous contact, but the last sustained sessions between them took place in Las Vegas the week before the 2003 U.S. Open.