Tiger shaping up?

[sahyder1]

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Associated Press

LEMONT, Ill. -- Tiger Woods and Butch Harmon have patched up their differences.

Tiger Woods, under the watchful eye of Butch Harmon in 2001, hasn't been the same player since their split.

Woods said Wednesday that he called his former swing coach recently to talk about criticisms Harmon had made. During the U.S. Open, Harmon said Woods might be in a "bit of denial" over the state of his game.

The two split after Harmon modeled the swing that helped Woods win seven of 11 majors in one stretch. Woods is now 0-for-8 in the majors, not winning since the 2002 U.S. Open, and has three victories on the PGA Tour in the last year.

"I decided to pick up the phone and call Butch and handle it the way it should be handled," Woods said after his pro-am round at the Western Open. "We talked about every single conceivable issue and point of view that each of us had, perception-wise. Sometimes things can be spun out of hand ... and I wanted to hear it from his mouth and he wanted to hear it from my mouth."

Woods seemed to be particularly upset that Harmon had made his criticisms in public, without going to his former pupil first. But Woods said everything has been straightened out.

"We talked about it for a while," he said. "And things are certainly much better than they were before."

I'm not a fan of Tiger by any stretch of the imagination but him taking the step to contacting Harmon is definitely good news for Golf