KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) ― Hank Haney has written a book about the six years he spent as Tiger Woods’ swing coach, a volatile time in which Woods went from winning nearly half of his tournaments to a scandal that derailed his pursuit of golf history.
Without giving away any details until “The Big Miss” goes on sale in the spring, Haney believes the book will be hard to put down.
“I get asked all the time about Tiger, what it was like to work with him,” Haney said in a telephone interview. “I felt like I had a front row seat to golf history. It just kind of chronicles a little bit of what I went through, what I dealt with, how I coached and the observations I made.
“I think there’s a lot of things that people are going to find interesting.”
Haney began working with Woods at the Bay Hill Invitational in 2004. They parted ways a month after the 2010 Masters, where Woods made his return to golf after being exposed for multiple extramarital affairs that shattered his image and led to divorce.
Most of the people involved with Woods have signed a nondisclosure agreement. Haney said he signed no such thing ― “I didn’t even have a contract,” he said ― although he said the book was not intended to “take jabs at anyone.”
Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent at Excel Sports Management, said he was aware of the book but that Woods had not seen any excerpts and would have no comment.
Haney was asked whether he thought Woods will like it. “If he reads it, I don’t think it will be a book that bothers him. It’s hard to say,” Haney said. “I think anybody who reads it will think it’s interesting, very fair and honest, and that’s what I wanted to do. I was on that job for six years.”