Five Revelations In The Big Miss

By golfdigest.com

An excerpt of Hank Haney's new book about his time coaching Tiger Woods, written with Golf Digest Senior Writer Jaime Diaz, reveals numerous complications in the golfer's lifePodcast: Jaime Diaz on the writing of The Big Miss

Tiger's knee affected his swing"Protecting Tiger's knee during the swing and still getting performance wasn't a simple thing," Haney writes.... "To preserve his knee, Tiger wanted some flex in his left leg at impact," but that opened him up to turning his hands over and hooking the ball. "It was the shot he most dreaded, because with a clubhead speed of more than 125 miles per hour, a hook for Tiger could easily turn out to be a big miss."

Tiger Feared The Driver"One of the adjectives most often used to describe Tiger Woods was fearless. But the more I observed him close up, the more it became clear he wasn't," Haney writes. "Sometimes, to make it less of a big deal, he'd remind me that he had never considered himself a particularly good driver, at least in comparison with the rest of his game. 'That's why my name is Woods,' he'd joke. 'Maybe it would have been different if I'd been named Fairway.'"

Catching Jack Added PressureBy 2007, Haney said, the job of coaching Woods got harder. "There was more urgency and less fun...He never mentioned Nicklaus' record, but it started to weigh more heavily at every major. And Tiger's actions indicated he believed he had less time to do it than everyone thought."

Tiger's Extreme Workouts Risked His KneeDuring four days of special-ops training in Fort Bragg, N.C., "Tiger did two tandem parachute jumps, engaged in hand-to-hand combat exercises, went on four-mile runs wearing combat boots, and did drills in a wind tunnel. Tiger loved it, but his physical therapist, Keith Kleven, went a little crazy worrying about the further damage Tiger might be doing to his left knee...One morning I was in the kitchen when he came back from a long run around Isleworth, and I noticed he was wearing Army boots. Tiger admitted that he'd worn the heavy shoes before on the same route. 'I beat my best time,' he said."

His Fascination With The Military Became Obsession"Tiger was seriously considering becoming a Navy SEAL. I didn't know how he'd go about it, but when he talked about it, it was clear he had a plan....I thought, Wow, here is Tiger Woods, greatest athlete on the planet, maybe the greatest athlete ever, right in the middle of his prime, basically ready to leave it all behind for a military life."