Perhaps Hank Haney should send thank you cards to Butch Harmon and David Feherty. They were the latest big names to question Haney’s motivation for writing a book about Tiger Woods.
All the chatter does is keep The Big Miss in the news. The end result has Haney’s book No. 3 on the current New York Times’ bestseller list. It actually had been No. 1, and with spring blooming in the Northeast and Father’s Day approaching (hey, let’s get Dad a golf book), it should rise to the top again.
It’s all happening either despite or because of constant criticism Haney did wrong by discussing the inside story of his relationship with Woods. In an interview with Golf Channel’s Morning Drive show Monday, David Feherty said:
The fact that Hank wrote the book – I wouldn’t have written the book. I just don’t think it has any class to it at all.
Last week in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Butch Harmon, Woods’ former coach, also took a shot at Haney. From the story:
“I’m very surprised that he would write it,” Harmon said. “I’d never do that to Tiger or Greg [Norman] or any of the guys I’ve been with. We get to spend a lot of time with these people, sometimes even more time than their own families. Things are said, or you see different things, and it’s just—it is what it is, you just leave it where it belongs. I was really shocked to see him talk about Elin and Tiger’s kids and stuff like that, I don’t think that had any place in it.”
He went on: “It almost seems the way he has everything documented in there—too many times and dates and places that you wouldn’t come up with from memory—it’s like he kept precise notes all along with writing a book in mind.”
Nothing helps book sales more than remaining in the public dialogue. People don’t appear to be turned off, judging by the bestseller list.
Haney wasn’t available for comment for the Wall Street Journal. If he was, I know what he would say.
Haney recently appeared as a guest on the golf show I do in Chicago, “The Scorecard” on WSCR-AM 670 on Saturday mornings. He stressed again that his time working with Woods was “my story too.”
He said:
I wanted to write a fair and honest book talking about my observations, what it was like to work with him. It was overwhelmingly positive, but it wouldn’t have been an honest book if there weren’t some negatives in there. When people read the book, they realize it is about coaching and about the greatness that is Tiger Woods.
People make the argument that Haney might have gone too far in disclosing some personal moments he witnessed with Woods. OK, but the book is so much more. From a golf–check that–sports standpoint, it is fascinating read, detailing the techniques Haney used to work with Woods. It is a behind the scenes perspective you rarely see involving a big-time athlete.
I’d recommend the book, regardless of what Harmon, Feherty and Haney’s other critics say.