How Tiger's Swing Has Changed
By
Peter Morrice
Photos by
J.D. Cuban and Stephen Szurlej
March 02, 2011

Woods circa 1992
"Tiger's swing was a tool, like a chisel for a sculptor. ... He didn't think about where his elbow was pointing when he used the chisel. He thought about the image he was seeing." -- Rudy Duran, Woods' first instructor
Woods circa 1992
Woods circa 1992
"His arc got so much bigger. That's when he really started hitting the ball long. I thought he got too flat these last few years." -- John Anselmo, Woods' second instructor
Woods circa 1992
Woods circa 1992
"Tiger did better when we worked on motion more than positions. He picked up the importance of posture or ball position better when I would show him how to hit certain shots, which was his favorite thing. I never tried to load him up with a lot of mechanical thoughts." -- John Anselmo
Woods circa 1992
Woods circa 1992
"I think the teachers after me have done a good job, but I don't think he needed much changing, to be honest. Sure, there was a looseness to his swing, but that was just because he hadn't filled out. I liked that freedom, that full release of his body. That was beautiful. He should hold onto that." -- John Anselmo
Woods circa 1992
Woods in 2000
"I agreed with Tiger about the flaws, but I wanted to do it a piece at a time. He wanted to do it all at once. I told him it was going to be hard to play through it, and that he might want to do what Faldo did with Leadbetter and basically take a year off. He said no, and in 1998 he struggled and won only once. He had a tendency to overdo changes. I had to be very careful what I told him." -- Butch Harmon
Woods in 2000
Woods in 2000
"There are no mechanics at all when he's really under the gun. That's how he should play all the time." -- Jack Nicklaus
Woods in 2000
Woods in 2000
The challenge was to "match the speed of the arms with the unwind of the body, which wasn't easy because Tiger had one of the fastest unwinds of the body anyone had ever seen. I decided he had to have more of a three-quarter-type swing, not a full windup and a full release." -- Butch Harmon
Woods in 2000
Woods in 2000
Woods in 2000
"When he drove the ball in the fairway, he was nearly unbeatable. That's what I kept trying to drive into him. But it didn't take." -- Butch Harmon
Woods in 2009
"I think it's fair to say that Butch had a better body to work with than I did. With me, he started looking more like a linebacker than a golfer." -- Hank Haney
Woods in 2009
Woods in 2009
"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." -- Tiger Woods
Woods in 2009
"If you look at where Tiger had the club as a young player, he was obviously way across the line. Butch went a long way to fixing that, and my first order of business was to continue to work in that direction." -- Hank Haney
Woods in 2009
Woods in 2009
Woods in 2009
"He was convinced that his golf swing was doing the damage to his knee. Everything had to revolve around saving his knee." -- Hank Haney
Woods in 2009
Woods in 2011
"What Tiger was doing wasn't efficient. He was losing tons of speed and power, some of the things that used to most separate him. And then he was getting more crooked. He couldn't hit the fairway because his alignments were not correct. Simple as that." -- Sean Foley
Woods in 2011
Woods in 2011
Woods in 2011
Woods in 2011
"They're very different swings. It's one of the things I struggled with when I worked with Hank, trying to relearn some new things and going away from what I did with Butch. The old motor patterns are still there." -- Tiger Woods
Woods in 2011
Woods in 2011
Woods in 2011
"Tiger has always been the best manager of his game. As far as changing his swing, it's very possible that he needed new ideas and new projects to stay inspired, and that those things kept him energized during times -- because he was winning everything -- when it would have been easy to lose motivation. I believe he still knows what he's doing and just needs to find his own way in his own time, and that's going to be best for him." -- Rudy Duran