Joy of Golf: Spotlight on Woods' coach

Joy Chakravarty 08:30 27/11/2014
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  • Trying out yet another coach: Tiger Woods

    The world may think of it as the easiest job on planet Earth. After all, if someone has won as many as 14 majors, what more can a coach teach him?

    I am not really sure how to answer that question, but after Tiger Woods named a virtually unknown Chris Como as his new swing coach, the 37-year-old has become the most talked about golf guru in the world almost overnight.

    And that in itself is a fair indication of the scrutiny he will be facing in the near future.

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    Is he as good as Butch Harmon, Hank Haney or Sean Foley? Well, he does not have the kind of CV these coaches had when Woods hired them. Among his former students are Trevor Immelman, Aaron Baddeley and Jamie Lovemark. 

    But Como, who was named in Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers list in 2014, is finishing his Master’s degree in biomechanics at Texas Woman’s University, and that part of his knowledge base is something that Woods has been seeking.

    One of the reasons Woods parted ways with Foley was because it was generally felt that the swing with Foley, along with his other physical issues (bad knee to start with) caused his back to start acting up.

    Because Woods is such a natural golfer, there were many who believed he’d go alone at this point of his career. They feel that nobody knows his swing better than Woods himself.

    So, I posed the question to the reigning world No2 Henrik Stenson. Do top-level golfers like himself actually need a coach? Stenson said: “I have not won 14 majors as yet, but I can speak for myself. I do need the third eye.

    “The problem while making a golf swing is that I cannot see it myself as a whole. And when you are looking at videos, it is not three-dimensional.

    “Sometimes, the input of the coach might not even be technical. Sometimes, he might just say something motivating, or give you a nice swing thought.

    “Personally, I feel you do need to have a coach all the time.”

    Hiring a coach is a very personal issue and I am sure Woods would have seen something really good in Como.

    They have been discussing his swing since the summer when introduced to each other by Woods’ close friend Notah Begay III. And it seems Woods spent almost a month practicing with Como before making the announcement.

    It’s a rather dramatic step by Woods, but given the state of his golf, and his body, he perhaps needed a shake-up like this.

    How they judge success

    This second story has again got a Henrik Stenson angle. Before he won the DP World Tour Championship last week, he came up with a very interesting observation regarding how he evaluated whether a season was successful or not.

    Stenson did not win any tournament in 2014 before his Dubai triumph, but did rack up several top-10 finishes on both Tours. 

    When asked to evaluate his season, Stenson said any year in which a player gains 200 world ranking points, has got to be a very good one. If you have a look at the world rankings, most players in the top-50 of the world rankings have accumulated 125 to 150 points during the season.

    There are 100 points for winning a major, 76 points for winning a WGC event, while most normal tour events would award 30-50 points based on the strength of the field.

    In the top-50 players, world No1 Rory McIlroy has made the most gains – 565.13 points this season. World No4 Bubba Watson, with one major and one WGC, has racked up 390.96 points. And Stenson improved his number to 251.66 following the DP World Tour Championship win.

    And guess who has been the biggest loser in the top-50? That would be Tiger Woods with just 6.57 points. No wonder he has slipped down to No24 in the world.

    Quotes of the week
    “This is the easiest situation that any coach has been in. You couldn’t coach Tiger and have a friendlier scenario than Chris Como has. Let’s face it…the expectations are not super high at this point.”
    – Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’ former coach, on the recent announcement by the 14-time major champion

    “My advice is to just enjoy the ride. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I would stay true to myself, focus on my player and not really pay attention to everything else around it.”
    – Another former Woods coach, Sean Foley, has some advice for Como.
     

    Stat of the week 
    206 places American Kevin Na improved in the world rankings this year. He is now ranked 27th and the only player in the top-50 of the world rankings to have improved from outside the top-200 of the world at the beginning of the year. The second best move has been by France’s Alexander Levy – up from 226 to No53 right now.

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