Foley/Tiger Speculation Heating Up

The heat has been turned up again on speculation that Canadian Sean Foley is about to become the new swing coach for the troubled Tiger Woods.

My buddy Chris Stevenson is at Whistling Straits for this week’s PGA Championship and has the latest in his Sun Media column.

In the past few years, Foley has made quite a name for himself with a stable of PGA Tour players that includes Stephen Ames, but if he can turn around the No. 1 player in the world, at least for now, he will be a very popular fellow.

Whether Foley joins Tiger or not, the point to ponder is whether Woods needs a swing coach as much as he needs somebody to help him sort out his much-publicized off-course problems in his head.

The cerebral aspect of the game seems to be Woods’ biggest challenge more than the physical side, but one can certainly affect the other as Vancouver’s Jim Nelford pointed out last week in my Sun Media column, which begins below:

As this week’s PGA Championship progresses on the windy shores of Lake Michigan, Vancouver’s Jim Nelford will be at Greystone Golf Club in Milton, making one of his rare competitive starts lately at the ClubLink Jane Rogers Championship.

The field at that Canadian Tour event may not be as high profile as the one at Whistling Straits, but it also includes Notah Begay, Matt Hill and RBC Canadian Open fan favourite Adam Hadwin, so take your pick.

Chances are good it will be someone you’re not familiar with, which makes the Jane Rogers not unlike the PGA Championship despite having big names including Tiger Woods. That’s how two of the three majors have gone thus far. Don’t be surprised if the trend continues.

Woods’ fall from automatic pick to sideshow shouldn’t come as a surprise since his life unraveled last fall, according to Nelford, whose analysis usually comes via the tube.

“I never thought it was going to be a small deal. I thought it was going to affect him deeply and will affect him for some time. In the last year, he’s felt feelings that he hasn’t had before in his life,” said Nelford.

“What he had going was this almost naïve confidence that everything should go right. When it starts to go wrong, and as monumentally as it did, those feelings stay in the body,” he added.

“We’re seeing Tiger look very mortal and when he drives it well, he putts it bad and when he putts it good, he drives it bad and hits other shots bad,” said Nelford, adding Woods has entered the realm of most players.

The question now is will Woods be able to deal with that frustration, or will it become a giant gorilla with him used to being at the pinnacle? Unless there’s a sudden, magical transformation, Whistling Straits isn’t likely to the place to see the Woods of old.

“Whistling Straits is a quirky golf course. You can find yourself in some spots there that are pretty horrible, with not hitting a bad shot. Sometimes, you can miss a shot and get penalized more than the shot merited,” said Nelford.

The way he was missing fairways at the Bridgestone Invitational, that could mean a train wreck beamed around the world, thanks to the fascination for Tiger. On the flip side, according to Nelford, the public may start to recognize what emerging stars are doing, as opposed to what Woods isn’t doing.

“I think it’s okay for golf. There are a lot of guys who are stepping up and playing some fantastic golf. For Tiger to be dominating, it made it really easy for all of us in the media,” he said.

“There are so many good stories and so many good players. Nobody ever owns (golf) and maybe, this was the best thing to happen for golf,” added Nelford, who will introduce an instructional series including books and DVDs this fall.

Of course, Phil Mickelson will have all eyes on him and the links feel to Whistling Straits may offer a bit of an advantage to Europeans, even after Lee Westwood pulled out with his troublesome calf muscle. There are still the likes of Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Justin Rose, among others.

“You could say (Whistling Straits) is a little more links-style because there’s so much quirkiness to it and maybe those guys are more accepting of that type of golf, although we’ve had a huge amount of American players do well at the British Open,” said Nelford.

“The Europeans are riding a nice wave of confidence,” he added. “They’re a little tigher-knit group than the American guys. That shows so much in the Ryder Cup, the way that’s gone. I think that’s a factor. They tend to band together a little bit more to defeat the big American machine.”

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• Foley’s In The Fishbowl At Augusta
• Was Tiger The Best Choice?
• Is HST Battle Just Heating Up?
• Woods Had An Important, But Subtle, Impact On Golf