Hank Haney thinks Tiger Woods’ muscle-gain is bad for his golf game
Forget the fact that Tiger Woods just came off a five-win season in 2013 where he won two World Golf Championships events and the Players Championship, not to mention Player of the Year, because after one bad week in 2014 the critics have assembled.
Hank Haney, a former instructor of Tiger and author of the now-famous "The Big Miss" book about Tiger's personal life downfall, went on his radio show on Sunday and said he thinks that the noticeable muscle-gain is bad for business.
“My opinion is he did too much of that,” Haney said. “He does a lot of the gym stuff. I know you need to do some for golf, no doubt about it. You need to be in shape, you need to avoid injury, but my opinion is he really overdoes that. … I look at him now and a lot of guys mentioned on the telecast, he looks bigger this year. I think Peter Kostis mentioned that. He looks like he’s gained more muscle mass. When he was thinner and younger he was actually faster then. The strength maybe helps you get out of the rough but I’d agree that he’s overdone it. But he loves to work out.”
Maybe I'm a little more new school with my thinking of the 2014 golfer, but I'm almost certain that gaining some muscle and mass isn't a bad thing for these guys, especially Tiger.
Woods cares about one thing these days and that is the number 19, so if he gained so much muscle it is definitely more of a strategy than it is a bad move for his golf swing.
We've seen Tiger win majors with stringy arms and we've seen him win it with a ballooned chest. Woods has taken the gym really seriously and it has inspired a whole different type of golfer to come to the game so I'm pretty sure it isn't his muscles that are the problem.
Tiger had one bad week. He played some absolutely terrible golf on Saturday and he would be the first to admit that, but I don't know if one week is worth pointing out what is wrong with Tiger. The guy has eight wins over the last 22 months and if you are going to point out some stuff wrong when he doesn't win you can look to his putting or his driving or simply his mental game.
I'm not exactly sure his bad play on Saturday was the result of a few extra bicep curls.
