Tiger Woods, on his website tigerwoods.com, announced this morning he has split with swing coach Sean Foley. Tiger offered the following statement:
“I’d like to thank Sean for his help as my coach and for his friendship. Sean is one of the outstanding coaches in golf today, and I know he will continue to be successful with the players working with him. With my next tournament not until my World Challenge event at Isleworth in Orlando, this is the right time to end our professional relationship.”
Foley’s time as Woods’ coach began in 2010 after the PGA Championship. It was a relationship that earned 8 tour victories and 2013 Player of the Year honors. The news comes one day after another of Foley’s pupils, Hunter Mahan, raised the trophy at The Barclays. Foley issued his own quotes:
“My time spent with Tiger is one of the highlights of my career so far, and I am appreciative of the many experiences we shared together.”
“It was a lifelong ambition of mine to teach the best player of all time in our sport. I am both grateful for the things we had the opportunity to learn from one another, as well as the enduring friendship we have built. I have nothing but respect and admiration for him.”
Tiger now has 3 months off before he is scheduled to compete again. He can rest his back and contemplate his next coach, although he gave no timetable for hiring one.
It seems like the entire internet has been begging for this to happen for some time now. Personally, I’m not sure this is fair to Sean Foley. Did he ever have a completely healthy Tiger Woods to work with? I’m not sure he did.
One thing I am sure of, there will be an explosion of speculation about a reunion between Woods and Butch Harmon. The internet will throw a tantrum demanding the two get back together. It’s an inevitability despite Harmon being very clear this afternoon answering the question if he would be interested in coaching Woods again:
“No I would not and he’s not going to call and ask. I don’t think he needs a swing coach. If I were advising Tiger I’d tell him, ‘You’re the greatest player that ever lived, just go to the range and hit shots.”
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