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'I got it' Woods reflects on 1999, looks forward to 2000
Posted: Tuesday December 14, 1999 05:28 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Every conversation between the pupil and the teacher started the same way. "I can't hit a shot," Tiger Woods used to say with just enough sarcasm that Butch Harmon wasn't overly alarmed. But something was different that afternoon in May. Woods was on the practice range at Isleworth, the golf course in Orlando, Fla., where he had spent so many long, lonely hours out of the spotlight working on the swing refinements that Harmon had been teaching for more than a year. As soon as Woods finished, he punched in Harmon's number on his cell phone for a conversation that wasn't anything like the others. "I got it, Butchy!" Woods told him. "I got it." "There was total joy in his voice," Harmon said from his Las Vegas office. "It was like the light went on. Everything we had been doing, all the changes, felt natural. And he had gotten his confidence back. He was at the point where he knew he could not be beaten if he played his game." Light on, lights out. In his first round after Woods "got it," he threw down a 61 in the Nelson Classic and probably should have won except for one swing that led to a triple bogey in the third round. No problem. Woods went to Germany the next week and beat a field that included six of the top 10 players in the world. He came back across the Atlantic and beat Vijay Singh in the Memorial with a short game that left tournament host Jack Nicklaus speechless. Including unofficial events and his prime-time exhibition with David Duval, Woods played 13 more events the rest of the year. He won nine of them. He swept player of the year honors from three organizations, no surprise since Woods had the most victories on tour in 25 years, the longest winning streak in 46 years and won more money than the combined earnings of the next two guys behind him. The only debate is who felt more gratified -- the pupil or the teacher? "I take tremendous satisfaction out of this," Harmon said. "We've been together since he was 16. We built this golf swing together." It was truly a team effort. Woods needed the eyes and experience of Harmon, his teacher the past seven years, to bring about changes in a swing that already was good enough to win the Masters in record fashion. Likewise, Harmon's teaching would have been wasted if not for Woods' burning desire to succeed. Harmon spent five years working with Greg Norman, reputed as one of the hardest workers in the game. "Tiger works even harder than that," Harmon said. "He does a lot on his own. A lot of his practice is in seclusion, so no one really knows how much he puts into his game. He's just an incredibly dedicated young man. He has an inward desire to be the best player the planet has ever seen." This wasn't a complete overhaul, much like what Nick Faldo and David Leadbetter went through in the mid-1980s. Besides, Faldo was a rising British star but had won nothing of substance when he decided to revamp his swing. Woods felt he needed to get better after winning the Masters by 12 strokes with a record score of 12-under 270. "That took tremendous intestinal fortitude to win the Masters the way he did, and then change his swing," Harmon said. "But he knew for longevity that it had to be better." Harmon described the changes in three parts. • The arms got more on plane, allowing for a more shallow backswing. • The clubface angle, which had been closed, became more square. That gave Woods better control of his distance. • The arms stayed in front on his downswing, which eliminated the one shot that always got him into trouble -- high and to the right. Woods' take on the evolution of his swing is much more succinct. "Everything about my golf swing is different from when I won in '97," he said. "It's unbelievable." So are the results. And remember, Woods is still only 23, still about seven years away from reaching his prime. Harmon spent last week in Orlando having dinner with Woods. It was a time to lay down some goals for 2000, and a time to reflect on a banner year -- for the pupil and the teacher.
"I've seen him grow up as a golfer and grow up as a person," Harmon said. "As a teacher at any level, we love to see them improve. One thing I've always known -- and this year is proves it as much as any -- there is nothing this kid can't do."
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