"But until he gets his head on straight and he gets his things in his mind settled, with some professional help I would add, I think it's going to be a while before we see the old Tiger Woods."
/That's Butch Harmon talking on UK television and quoted in Bob Harig's look at the status of Hank Haney as Tiger's swing coach.
"Tiger Woods is, to me, his game is in disarray," Harmon told the PGA Tour Network/Sirius XM Radio on Thursday. "There's no doubt about that. That's obvious. Anybody that plays golf can look out there and see that. That he's not Tiger Woods.
"But until he gets his head on straight and he gets his things in his mind settled, with some professional help I would add, I think it's going to be a while before we see the old Tiger Woods. He will figure out the mechanical part of it, the physical part of it. It's the mental part of it, I think, that's hurting him right now."
After quoting Haney, Harig makes this point in the instructor's defense:
After missing his only cut last year at the British Open, Woods went on this run: 1-1-2-T2-T11-1-2. He helped the U.S. Presidents Cup team to victory by going 5-0, tied for sixth at the WGC-HSBC Champions in China and then won the Australian Masters.
After his round, Tiger was asked about how he repaired his swing to shoot 69 and offered this:
Q. What are you working on to get that club back out in front of you? It looks a little different than it did with what you were doing in Augusta. Actually today looks a little different?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I feel I can draw the ball now. At Augusta, I couldn't draw the ball at all. I was just kind of scrapping it with kind of a cut and trying to get it around.
When I'm swinging well, I'm maneuvering that ball from right to left and it feels good.
Q. So you figured this out yourself?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, yeah.
And it's for that reason that few writers believe Tiger will stay with Haney much longer.
But there was some good news for Tiger Thursday. Accenture was a penny stock for a while!