The Hank Haney ‘Tiger Woods’ book, The Big Miss will be released in March. Haney will divulge details about their relationship and his observations about Tiger. As Tiger’s swing coach for about six years, he claims they spent time together 110 days a year and talked to each other as much as 200 times a year. He also says he stayed at Woods house for 30 days a year. With all that, he probably has enough material to write a real page-turner, even though he didn’t know anything about the scandal. But should he have written it?

My first reaction is ‘No, not unless he had Tiger’s blessing.” This comes from my general belief is that we should try not to do things that we know will hurt someone, unless there is a really good reason to do so. (Disclaimer: I’m quite sure I haven’t lived up to my own belief system on many occasions, but I do try.) Can you imagine how awful it would feel to have someone you once trusted reveal the best and worst parts of you to the whole world?

But let’s explore the question of whether or not the book should have been written a little further…

A little background… If you’re over 35, you can remember a time in professional golf when golf teachers (now called ‘swing coaches’) rarely if ever traveled to a PGA Tour event to give a lesson. We didn’t know much, if anything, about the teachers behind the players. Head to the driving range of a PGA Tour event today and you’ll find a bevy of swing coaches amidst the players and caddies. Clearly they’ve become a more integral a part of the game of today’s players. And as players get more famous, so do their swing coaches. They get credited and they get blamed by the media and by fans. They also get interviewed on TV, in newspapers, magazines, websites and more. You may have noticed that some of these swing coaches take plenty of the credit for themselves and say a little too much in the interviews. Regardless of their level of humility, they’re no doubt getting paid well for their services and any extra attention is probably good for business at home.

When you’re employed as a swing coach by Tiger Woods it probably not only launches your career and income to a new level, it probably wreaks havoc on your whole life. Hank Haney no doubt made sacrifices in his personal life to be Tiger’s swing coach. Does he deserve something more for his sacrifice? Does he deserve the right to tell his story? Maybe so.

Love him or hate him, it’s fairly likely that Tiger Woods will go down in history as one of the greatest athletes of all time. His performances have left us shaking our heads for lack of any words to describe what he has done. Does history deserve to understand more about him? Maybe so.

Regardless of the answers to the questions, the book is available and I bet a whole bunch of them will sell. Tiger and other celebrities may think more often about requiring those they hire to sign non-disclosure agreements. But it goes beyond that, we live in a world where privacy is disappearing. We all know it and some people fight it. Maybe the silver lining will be that all of us will try to bring our “A game” more often when it comes to behavior, no matter who we think is watching.

Photo Credit Keith AllisonBased on performance alone, Yani Tseng should be to the LPGA what Tiger Woods was to the PGA in the early years of his career. Not yet 23 years old, Tseng has 22 professional victories to her credit, including five major championships. No player of either gender has accomplished so much so early. There are a few LPGA events in other parts of the world (closer to Yani’s homeland in Taiwan) that benefit greatly from her celebrity, but  it’s not the case for LPGA venues in the United States. In fact, the LPGA is struggling mightily to get tournaments and sponsors in the U.S.  Sponsors of course are driven by the people who consume their products, so you have to ask “Why is American interest in women’s professional golf dropping off when one of the most talented players ever, is on the rise?”

Based on personality alone, Yani Tseng should be to the LPGA what Arnold Palmer was to the PGA in the prime of his career. 60,000 fans came to see their beloved superstar play in the LPGA Taiwan Championship last year – she has mass appeal at home for sure.  Despite her much lower profile in the U.S., Yani Tseng chooses to live in Florida and make competing on the LPGA Tour her main focus. Like Woods, her golf game speaks for itself and she could rest on that, but like Palmer, she wants to be a part of the bigger picture. Yani has worked hard over the last few years to learn to speak English. She seems to like those in the media and gives them full access. She communicates with fans on Facebook and Twitter and often in two languages. She is determined to help the LPGA thrive in this country. If you follow Tseng for a little while, you have to ask “Even if it takes a little longer, can she be the one to put the LPGA back on the map in the U.S.?”

Based on the history alone, Yani Tseng’s performance and personality may be enough to make her a superstar in America. Perhaps it’s human nature that dictates our desire to cheer for those who are most like us  – you know, the three ‘L’s of location, language and looks. It’s also human nature and very American to remove those barriers as we come to know someone better.  Hopefully, Yani will get some help in this quest to spur the LPGA in the U.S. If Lexi Thompson, the 17-year-old American phenom lives up to expectations, the 2012 rivalry between these two could set the LPGA on fire!

Recommended Reading:
Celebrated in Asia, Little Known in America – NY Times
Tseng’s spectacular year ranks fourth in AP voting – Waggle Room

Every year our New Year’s gang makes predictions for the upcoming year about everything from politics to sports. On the following New Year’s eve we review to see how we’ve done. This morning I’ve been thinking about my predictions and of course of few of them are golf related.

My 2012 Golf Predictions…

• Yani Tseng will continue to be the dominant force in women’s golf and will add to her Major tally, but WILL NOT complete the grand slam with a win at the U.S. Women’s Open (this year). She will do it eventually.
• Lexi Thompson will win a major championship and a golf rivalry between Tseng and Thompson will begin to emerge.
• Luke Donald will win a major championship.
• Tiger Woods will win at least 3 times worldwide.

© Patrick Allen | Dreamstime.com

There is still some disagreement on whether or not the Tiger Era is over, but mainly because there is no definition of what the’Tiger Era’ actually means in terms of professional golf. ‘Era‘ is a period of time marked by distinctive character, events, etc. according to Dictionary.com. (Hard not to make a tiny joke about the distinctive character in question.) There is little denying that since the 1996 “Hello World” announcement by Tiger Woods, that professional golf as we knew it, changed. Whether measured in terms of the increase of golf fans, the change in television coverage or the sky rocket in tournament purses, the landscape was different than it had been before. The reason… Tiger Woods dominated golf in a way that no one had before. Unlike Palmer, Nicklaus and Watson before him, none of Woods’ contemporaries seemed up to the task of taking him down at the big moments. In fact, they all seemed to fall away when his name even cast a shadow on a leader board.

That’s how I define the Tiger Era and we’re clearly not in it right now, nor have we been since that Thanksgiving two years ago. I will say, that it would not shock me to see Tiger return to good form or even to eclipse Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors. But if he does, I would see it as the Phoenix Era (rising from the ashes). Many are still hoping for Tiger’s return, and that would be exciting for golf fans. But in the meantime or just in case, how do we recover from the Tiger Era?

There are so many great players, but no one is dominating. Will it be Luke or Rory or Keegan? What if none of them emerge as the guy who contends for every major championship? The reality is that many people just won’t be as interested in watching golf. For me though, my interest has shifted as I’ve learned more about all of these other amazing talents. Before, Tiger got most of the attention and we didn’t learn much about the other players. As it turns out, some of them have terrific personalities and aren’t afraid to engage the press or the public. They are worth watching and they are worthy of having great fans. If you want to rekindle your love of professional golf after the ‘age of Tiger’, I suggest signing up for a Twitter account and start following some of these guys as they go through their daily lives. They’re fun and funny and you get a sense of their character. Yes, social media may be the thing that tides us over until the next great era in professional golf or maybe we’ll all learn to love great rivalries between a few good men!

Of course it’s no big surprise that Phil Mickelson has been elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. The guy has won 39 PGA Tour events and he’s only 41 years old. Only eight others have more PGA wins and hopefully we’ll see many more victories before Phil’s career ends. Most golf fans are pretty familiar with his story even though it’s often overshadowed by the most dominant player of the era. (Yes, of course I’m speaking of Tiger Woods). Phil’s is a story worth noting and maybe someday if he adds a few more victories, his story would even make a good movie.

Why? Because he’s a guy who knows what he stands for, he’s endured some serious hardships, he’s far from perfect and most of all, because he keeps showing up, talking to the press and giving his all. Phil Mickelson at any other moment in time, might have been the most dominant player on the PGA Tour… but at this moment, he has only been a distant second in that race. His creative shot-making puts us in awe, yet his struggles with weight, fitness and the discipline for both, make him one of us. We scream at the TV when he makes “bad” decisions, but quietly think of our own golf failures and smile that someone so talented isn’t so different after all. We say he’s too honest in press conferences, but then criticize him for seeming a little phoney. We judge him for tinkering too much, for equipment changes, for swing coach changes and even for the way he dresses.

In the end, or the middle, or where ever you think we are, aren’t we really just getting the privilege of watching Phil Mickelson, an exraordinary talent and a gentle man, grow up and grow older and correct his course along the way. He does much of it with the public watching and to my mind, he’s done it fairly gracefully. In the last three years, he has been dealt some of life’s more difficult blows and if his perspective on golf needed any adjusting, it surely has been adjusted. With his victory at The Masters a year after his wife and mother were diagnosed with breast cancer, Phil showed that he has the mental toughness to overcome the very real distractions that life provides. He’s even won since being diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis last year. It’s a disease that can be extremely debilitating and we’ve seen Phil take it on with new discipline in his diet and as an advocate thru his website OnCoursewithPhil.com.

We’ve seen him go from being a young man who had nothing except golf on which to focus, to a middle-aged man with much on his plate. He’s continued to rack up achievements on the golf course through it all. We’ve already laughed at him and cried with him, but the end of this movie could still be better… Wouldn’t it be something to see him achieve the grand slam or his goal of 50 wins or even somehow climb to the #1 spot in the world for the first time, at 40-something?

So Phil, Congratulations on this achievement, but please don’t rest on your laurels. There’s a movie to be made, but the ending can get even better. Your stock will likely only go up no matter what you accomplish, but just so you know, you’ve got some fans who want to see more!