"This glaringly obvious sameness does not, of course, make Harmon a bad teacher."

John Huggan suggests that the over-analysis of the Tiger-Haney relationship status ought to question why Phil Mickelson and Butch Harmon are not more closely scrutinized.

When the pair got together just prior to the 2007 Players Championship here at Sawgrass, Mickelson was a long-hitting short game genius who routinely won four or five times a season, but was otherwise prone to inconsistency and more than the odd wild shot. Today, three years on, Mickelson is a long-hitting short game genius who routinely wins four or five times a season, but is otherwise prone to inconsistency and more than the odd wild shot.

This glaringly obvious sameness does not, of course, make Harmon a bad teacher. Real change needs both enough time and complete cooperation from the student to fully bed in. The suspicion here is that Mickelson made the required commitment -- at least initially -- but has proven to be temperamentally unsuited to any long-term tweaks Harmon has attempted to introduce. As evidenced by the cavalier way in which he won the Masters last month, Phil is not a golfer who frets over his "fairways-hit" ranking or who pines for a shorter swing and greater consistency. He is what he is -- enormously entertaining -- and more power to him for that.