The Stack And Tilt Wars: "I'm not going to say the person's name, whoever Tiger is working with, you know, he's got Andy and Mike's DVD, his book, and he always calls them asking questions."

Charlie Wi, following Friday's round at Cog Hill, was asked about Stack and Tilt's status on the PGA Tour.

And I know that you're probably referring to Aaron Baddeley and Mike Weir, but Aaron Baddeley was the worst ball striker on the PGA TOUR before -- well, you should laugh because it's a fact. It's a stat that we -- and Andy and Mike, to their credit, took him -- he won three times with Andy and Mike, and also took him to inside top 20 in the world. And if that's not good enough for Aaron, well, it is what it is.

And also Mike Weir, he was also one of the worst ball strikers on TOUR, and it took him to -- he won two times with Andy and Mike and make $6 million in two seasons with Andy and Mike, and he thought that wasn't good enough. If you look at -- they're not here this week, so maybe they should be working with Andy and Mike.

And they're good friends of mine, too.

Andy and Mike or Aaron and Mike? Uh, probably the first two.

Q. I might be reading too much into it, but just the way you introduced them early in the press conference, you're working with them and they're the Stack & Tilt guys, do you feel they've been under an unnecessary attack lately?

CHARLIE WI: Well, yeah. All the players know and all the caddies know who all the best teachers are out here. They're really quiet. They don't go around looking for press or anything. But I think that because it is different, other teachers have a tendency to bash them. Maybe they might be one generation ahead of them, but in the end they're not teaching something that is new. They're teaching geometry, and geometry works for everybody. If you're 200 pounds, if you're 6'3", 5'5", everybody, geometry is the same with everybody.

You know, if you guys had a chance to sit down with them and talk to them about golf, you know, you would see that they know what they're talking about, and they have a huge following. I'm not going to say the person's name, whoever Tiger is working with, you know, he's got Andy and Mike's DVD, his book, and he always calls them asking questions. They know what -- they definitely know what they're talking about.

 You just had to bring Tiger and what's his name Sean Foley into this, didn't you?

Q. I don't remember it. Do you take it personally, I guess, because you're still working with Andy and Mike, and they seem to be criticized in various publications, and the guy that Tiger is working with is getting a lot of attention?

CHARLIE WI: Yeah, and I think that there's an article coming out in Golf Digest, and there was a big problem with Andy and Mike and the person that's working with Tiger because the pictures that are in the Golf Digest is pretty much straight out of their golf book that they have released.

Andy approached him and said, hey, I don't think it's fair that you're using our material. But he goes, well, you know, they asked me a question and said who do you look up to as teachers, and he said that my first teacher is Andy and Mike, the Stack & Tilt guys, so we'll see when the publication comes out if he did say that or not.

The Battle Of The Swing Instructors. It would be so much more fun than Big Break Daufuskie Island.

"Part of this saga makes me feel like I’m in high school again. Woods and Foley probably aren’t going 'steady’' yet. They’re likely just 'seeing each other.'"

Sean Martin all but wonders if Tiger and Sean Foley will be updating their Facebook relationship status to let us know they are working together after Tuesday's press conference.

But on a serious note, Martin observes this:

In a news conference Tuesday, Woods said he’s been trying to limit his head movement on his backswing, “so that I can start going down the line again, start using my legs again properly. I feel like . . . I can use my legs and my rotation the way that I know I can.”

“Leg drive’’ and “rotation’’ are two key principles of Foley’s teaching. He’s hardly the first person to emphasize these principles. But he focuses on them more than most. Foley once told me that technology “was the death of the ballstriker,” partly because it lessened the need to compress the ball at impact.

Hey anyone who dares to talk about a side effect of technology must be good. Tiger, you have my blessing.

"The buzz is in their court right now."

Jaime Diaz on the "guru war" that has broken out within the stable of short game specialists, led by Dave Stockton and sons:

None of the great putters of the last 50 years -- Bob Charles, Billy Casper, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, et al. -- had a regular coach to help them on the greens. The same goes for today's acknowledged best: Woods, Steve Stricker, Brad Faxon and Brian Gay. For that matter, Stockton and Utley had no putting coach besides their boyhood teachers. The resistance is evident in the fact that the most recent partnerships were not initiated by the player. Stockton was suggested to Mickelson by his caddie, Jim Mackay, as Utley was to Garcia by Billy Foster. Stockton, at the behest of Mickelson, offered his services to Scott.

But when Stockton seemed to be the pivotal figure in Mickelson's immediate improvement, and when Scott and Justin Rose won soon after receiving a lesson from Dave Jr., it became a powerful narrative. "I highly respect what the Stocktons are doing," Utley says. "The buzz is in their court right now."

Hank Haney Decides He'd Like To Spend Less Time Denying That He's Been Fired

So here's the story.

Here's Hank Haney's website in case you didn't have it bookmarked.

Let's get to his statement. It's moving, I tell you.

I have informed Tiger Woods this evening that I will no longer
be his coach.

If it's by text or voice mail, do you think Tiger will share it with us?

“I would like to thank Tiger for the opportunity that I have had to work with him over the past 6 plus years. Tiger Woods has done the work to achieve a level of greatness that I believe the game of golf has never seen before and I will always appreciate the opportunity that I have had to contribute to his successes. I have also enjoyed the association that I have had with Tiger both on and off the golf course as I have had some incredible experiences. In coaching and teaching Tiger I have also learned a lot, not only about golf, but about people and life in general. It has been a great learning experience and along the way Tiger has elevated me in my own profession to a level that I never thought I would achieve before I had the opportunity to work with him.

Hear, hear!

“In many ways because of all of the time that I have spent with Tiger, I may have learned more from him than he has ever learned from me.

Erase your texts, don't leave voice mails, make sure you have a really good short game if you are going to try the Haney method...that about sum it up?

So I believe at this time that it is in both of our best interests for me to step aside as Tiger's coach.

Now let me get this straight. A student goes to a teacher to become better. But in this case, the teacher decides he's learned from the student all he needs to learn for his own betterment and abandons the student at his greatest time of need? I'm just saying...

“I will always look back upon our past half dozen years together as my best days in professional golf.It would be a dream of any coach to have a student like Tiger Woods and for me it has a dream come true. Just so there is no confusion I would like to make it clear that this is my decision.

Yes, we want to be clear that you are dumping your student at the absolute lowest point of his career.

Tiger Woods and I will always be friends,

I'm not so sure about that...

but I believe that there is a time and place for everything and I feel at this time and at this place in my life I want to move forward in other areas.

Season three of my Golf Channel reality show!

“Tiger has been just an incredible performer in golf and he has achieved great success throughout his career. First with his father Earl, and then with Butch Harmon as his coach, followed by me, I know Tiger Woods will be successful in the future no matter who helps him. He is an incredible athlete with an incredible work ethic.

As we all know, Tiger has been through a lot in the last six months, and I really believe that given the chance, mind free and injury free, we will all see Tiger Woods play once again like we all know he can.

And now that he's dumped his swing coach...oh wait, no, it's the other way around.

“I wish Tiger well, not only with his golf, but in finding peace and happiness in all aspects of his life. Tiger knows that if he ever needs me in anyway, whether it be with his golf or just as a friend he can always call.I will always, as I have been in the past, be there for him.

Just not right now in this time of need.

From a personal standpoint, I look forward to being able to make many more contributions to the great game of golf in the days and years ahead.”

Hank Haney

So, let's refresh our memories with some of Haney's recent comments. Last week, talking to Bob Harig.

"Tiger's record speaks for itself," Haney, 55, said Thursday by telephone. "If everyone wants to say it is my fault. ... People are entitled to their opinions. You can't do anything about that. But the results are what they are and the facts are what they are. What can I say?"

What Haney says is that he just received a quarterly payment, that he has not been told his services are no longer needed and that Woods is enduring a complicated time in his life that is bound to affect his golf.

Wonder if he'll be sending that quarterly payment back?

And a few days later, May 6, in a John Huggan column.

"I seriously doubt that if the things outside of golf hadn't changed so drastically for Tiger, then my teaching wouldn't be coming into question right now," Haney continued in an e-mail.

True, those wild tee shots and other wacky shots went totally unnoticed the last few years.