Why Dr. Galea, Why?

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One thing is clear in reading the Anthony Galea charges filed Tuesday: Tiger Woods is not named in the complaint, nor is there any evidence presented that he was the recipient of the special knee potion that the doctor cooked up for his NFL clients, leading to the charges filed against Galea. The only possible reference to Tiger appears to be under the name Athlete D, when Galea visited Orlando on August 2nd.
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The Stevie Firing Watch Commences?

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Slipped into John Huggan's column on Hank Haney was this about Tiger looper Stevie Williams.

Last week at the Players, Williams was even more taciturn than usual, a fact that betrayed a growing frustration with both his boss and the rubbish golf he was playing at Sawgrass. There seemed to be little or no interaction between the pair, even at times when Williams would normally be expected to step up and get in his man's ear.

There are growing rumours too that Mrs Williams (a close friend of the soon-to-be ex-Mrs Woods), disgusted by the salacious behaviour of Woods over the past few months, is keen for her husband to work in a, shall we say, cleaner atmosphere.

It is rather apparent in person that the old Stevie-Tiger vibe is gone, with Stevie much less animated and the conversations between the two minimized.

"Now I question everything he says."

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Hank Haney's insights into Tiger's possible progress in his sex rehab should be questioned, but his thoughts on PED use by Tiger drew even more ridicule from the SI/golf.com gang:

Bamberger: Haney says that he doesn't believe Tiger ever used performance-enhancing drugs. I hope he's correct. But if Woods had, I think there is NO chance that Hank would have known about it. In my experience, athletes who have used PEDs will lie to their grandmothers about it.

Morfit: Exactly. If I'm Tiger and I'm taking PEDs, I'm not picking up the phone and saying, "Hey, Hank, it's T — you'll never believe what I just put into my smoothie." Not going to happen.

Godich: There is no way Tiger would share THAT with anyone.

Morfit: Remember, this is a guy who wouldn't even tell us his neck hurt.

Herre: Haney says he didn't know about the women, either.

Evans: Remember guys, Hank was just an employee of Tiger, he wasn't a Jack Grout figure to him, some super-influential, fatherly figure full of pearls of wisdom.

Dusek: Hank said the only thing he saw Dr. Galea put in Tiger was what Galea had just taken out of Tiger and spun. But Hank can only really comment on what he saw. As Haney (and the rest of us) learned, there were lots of things in Tiger's life that were happening, but not out in the open.

Gary Van Sickle, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: This is where Tiger's being untruthful about so many things comes back to haunt him. He has no credibility. Now I question everything he says.

Tiger-Hank Breakup Clippings, Vol. 1

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Mike Walker reveals the method Hank Haney used to quit on Tiger Woods...

"I texted him last night [that I was leaving], and he texted me back," Haney told the station. "We went back and forth for a while, but he had his kids last night and couldn't talk. We are going to talk later today."

In a text message to GOLF.com, Haney stressed that he was not fired.

"This was my decision, and he [Woods] won't spin it any other way," Haney said. "There comes a time and a place for everything to move on. Now was the time for me to step aside. Simple as that.

"There is nothing to be sorry about."

Bob Harig offers this from Haney who is not letting his statement speak for itself.

"I've dealt with that for six years," Haney said Tuesday during a telephone interview. "That wasn't something that all of a sudden got to me. It's part of the job. If you have no critics, you have no successes. I've had plenty of success in my career, and I'm going to have some critics."

Doug Ferguson says "stepping aside was a gracious move by Haney." Who knew quitting could ever be confused with grace?

While the timing looks bad - Woods is at his lowest personally and professionally - Haney did not walk out on him. What he did was spare Woods from having to spin tales about their relationship for the next however many months. He also spared the media and the public from having to listen to it and speculate about it.

He spared him from having to lie. There's also that other option Tiger could try: telling the truth!

Steve Elling praises the decision, but for different reasons.

Given that nobody at the moment is pulling punches as it relates to expressing harsh opinions about anything relating to Woods' personal or professional life, it quite possibly was only going to get worse for the Texas-based coach. A gamble or not, Haney made the right decision.

Brandel Chamblee says Tiger should hire a Harmon to replace Haney, nominating brother Billy for the thankless job.

GolfDigest.com features a writer roundtable analyzing where Tiger goes from here with this swing, starting with this from Jaime Diaz:

I think the big change in the shape of Tiger's swing under Hank is that it emphasizes the arms staying more in front of the body on the downswing. The result is a slightly steeper angle into the ball, which has helped Tiger become a much better iron player, probably the best in the game. On the other hand, Tiger has for the most part lost the wider, sweeping action that characterized his swing pre-Hank. In those days, Tiger was a longer and overall better driver of the ball relative to his peers. Ultimately, I think Tiger's frustration with not being a better driver after several years of very hard work started to erode his relationship with Hank.

Peter Morrice, senior editor of instruction, Golf Digest: It seems unfair to judge Hank's contributions based on this year. Since they started working together, no doubt Tiger's learned to control the ball better on iron shots, and has added many more shots to his bag. But his driving is certainly not at the same level. And if you look back through history, you'll find great drivers and great iron players, but rarely a player who is both. Maybe the work he's done recently has focused too much on becoming a great iron player and not enough on hitting the driver in play.