Quick Facts
Biography
Hank Haney (born August 24, 1955) is an American professional golf instructor best known for coaching Tiger Woods and two-time major championship winner Mark O'Meara. A graduate of the University of Tulsa, Haney owns and operates four teaching facilities in the Dallas, Texas area.
Philosophy
Haney says, "My philosophy as a teacher is to teach my students to become their own best teacher by getting them to understand the flight of the golf ball and how it relates to the swing, with emphasis on swinging the golf club on their own correct swing plane".
Haney changed Tiger Woods' swing from an upright to a flatter golf swing. His wrist cock is much less obvious than it was with his previous coach Butch Harmon. Woods' swing is much more around his body, Haney tries to get his students to swing on the same plane angle which the golf club is on at address.
In 2008, Haney started working with former NBA star and current NBA analyst Charles Barkley on the Golf Channel's The Haney Project: Charles Barkley, an attempt to fix Barkley's infamously bad swing. Haney's show continued in 2010, this time with comedian Ray Romano. The third season, in 2011, featured talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. Series 4 (2012) featured a four-player shootout in Mario Batali, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Angie Everhart. Series 5, to debut in 2013, features all-time winner of the most Olympic medals, Michael Phelps.
On Monday, May 10, 2010, one day after Woods withdrew in the final round of The Players Championship, Haney informed Woods that he would no longer be his coach.
In 2011, During a TV interview with Mark MacDonald at the University of Pittsburgh, Hank said, "Watching Charles Barkley swing a golf club is like watching Helen Keller trying to read. It's pathetic." Though this may have been the low point of Hank's life, it was likely the high point for Mark "Clark" MacDonald's. A few years later "Clark" finally found Hope, literally and metaphorically. "Clark" and Hope currently reside in Manhattan and have been said to be connected by the hip.
Haney has a videogame of his own, Hank Haney's World Golf, that was released for Windows on November 16, 2010. A Mac OS X version was released under the name World Challenge Golf 2011 by Virtual Programming on September 28, 2011.
Awards
- PGA Teacher of the Year (USA) - 1993
- PGA "Harvey Penick Award for Teaching Excellence" - 1984
- North Texas PGA Section "Teacher of the Year" - 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993
- North Texas PGA Section "Horton Smith Award" - 1990
- North Texas PGA Metro Chapter "Horton Smith Award" - 1991, 1992
- Gulf Coast PGA Chapter "Teacher of the Year" - 1984
- Federazione Italiana Golf "Top Teacher" - 1989, 1990
- NCAA Division I Golf Coach of the Year - 1998
- Golf Digest Top 25 Teacher, 1984 - 1992
- Golf Digest Top 10 Teacher, 1993 - 1999
- Golf Digest Number 4 Teacher, 2000, 2002
- Golf Digest Number 6 Teacher - 2001
- Golf Digest Number 5 Teacher - 2003, 2004
- Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher, 1984 - 2004
- Golf World's Top 50 Golf Personalities Worldwide - 2000
- D Magazine (Dallas) "The Best of Dallas" - "Best Golf Instructor" - 2003