Harmon weighs in on Woods, Haney book

• By Golf Channel Digital
• Apr 21, 2012 8:41 PM ET

It seems as if everyone has weighed in on Hank Haney’s book and Tiger Woods’ game of late, but one prominent voice had been conspicuous by its absence.

Until now.

Butch Harmon, Woods’ coach in the 1990s and early 2000s, talked to The Wall Street Journal, offering these not-very-shocking thoughts about Haney’s “The Big Miss” and Woods’ game:

• He’s “surprised” Haney would write such a book, especially one with personal detail about Woods. “I was really shocked to see him talk about Elin and Tiger's kids and stuff like that, I don't think that had any place in it."

• Harmon would never write such a book. "I'd never do that to Tiger or Greg [Norman] or any of the guys I've been with.”

• The amount of detail Haney had indicated he intended to write a book right from the beginning of his relationship with Woods. “(I)t's like he kept precise notes all along with writing a book in mind."

• Woods, Harmon thinks, has “lost his nerve putting. I think his nerves are bad, and he's lost his confidence.”

• Woods needs less instruction, not more. “He's Tiger Woods, for God's sake.”

• Woods “looks like he's playing 'golf-swing' and not golf. In my opinion, he's very robotic.”

• Woods’ performance in winning at Bay Hill was overrated, in Harmon’s opinion. “I think everyone thought because he won at Bay Hill that he was back; well, he didn't hit it great at Bay Hill, he hit it OK. And Bay Hill's not a major."

• If Woods asked him for advice, he’d tell him to go to the range by himself and just hit a variety of shots. “Quit playing golf-swing and just hit shots; just say to himself, I'm gonna hit a low fade, and I don't need anybody to tell me how to do it, I'm just gonna feel it.”

The Journal article said Haney was unavailable, and Woods declined to comment.

Harmon last month put out a two-DVD set, "Butch Harmon: About Golf."