From Tiger to Barkley, Hank Haney Has Coached Them All

People these days know Hank Haney as the instructor of Tiger Woods, the best golfer in the world, but Haney is more than that. He's been instructing golfers for 32 years, teaching over 200 touring pros in that span. Haney now owns and operates four teaching facilities in Dallas, Texas, and is the star of The Golf Channel's The Haney Project, which puts Hank with celebrities that want to improve their game. Along with that, Haney has signed a deal with Charles Schwab that includes a program they've called "Talk to a Pro," which allows Haney to give special tips about the golf world.

FanHouse caught up with Hank right before the Presidents Cup, and talked to him about Mark O'Meara, Tiger Woods and what he would do to evaluate someone in a first lesson. Read the exclusive FanHouse interview below.

FanHouse: Before you decided to become an instructor, what were your own golf goals? Were you interested in playing professionally?

Haney: I played golf in college, at the University of Tulsa, so I always worked on my game and I enjoyed trying to become better, it's a passion of mine. But I majored in education at Tulsa, and knew I wanted to be an instructor, and that was the only job I've ever had, so I decided early on that I wanted to do something in golf and teaching was what I wanted to do.

FanHouse: Do you still play?

Haney: I still play a lot. I play more than I've ever played. I've got a little more time now and I'm a little further along in my career so I play a lot. I probably play 100 times a year.

FanHouse: Mark O'Meara (one of Haney's students) was always a good player ... Did you see that? He was always a good player, but when he won two majors in one year, were you surprised at that, or did you expect something like that could happen for someone with his type of game?

Haney: You never know. Mark was very capable, but you have to be in the right place at the right time. The one thing about Mark O'Meara is he was always a great finisher. If he got in position, he could finish the deal. A lot of things that people don't realize is you get to where ... I always thought he could do well at Augusta (National), but you know, the British Open was always a good tournament for him too, and you get on good golf courses that you've had success on in the past, it makes it easier to have success in the future.

FanHouse: So you and I go to the practice tee, and we have an hour to hit some range balls. What's the first thing you look at?

Haney: The first thing I look at is what the ball does, in particular what the ball does with maybe a middle iron and then what the ball does with their driver, and find out what their critical ball flight mistake is. You either hook the ball to the left or slice the ball to the right and, you know, that's your critical ball flight mistake and then that is what we need to fix first.

FanHouse: And I saw online that you really want to make people realize that the ball flight is so important and you want to make them understand how to make it work. Is that really what you focus on?

Haney: You've got to be able to diagnose based on the ball flight because it's what you can see as a teacher and it's what you can see as a student. You can't see yourself swing, but you can see where the ball goes. To hit a golf ball a certain way, you can only do that by making a certain kind of impact and that impact is telling you what you're doing wrong. So you have to be able to read the ball flight.

FanHouse: What would you say the appropriate amount of time is for someone to divide between the driving range and short game?

Haney: The stock answer for that is half the time on short game and half the time on full swing, and half the short game time should be spent putting, but it all just depends on what you're having the most trouble with and where your biggest weaknesses are. Golf is a game where there aren't enough hours in the day to practice everything so you really have to put out fires, if you will, and sometimes you'll have to spend more time on your short game and sometimes you'll have to spend a little more time on your full swing.

FanHouse: When Tiger missed the cut at the British, people were chattering about his swing. Do you read or listen to any of that, or is it just people not understanding that golf is a hard game and sometimes it just isn't there?

Haney: Well, everybody has an opinion, and they're entitled to their opinion. Yeah, I listen to it all and I hear it, but it's one tournament, and it wasn't even really one tournament, it was six holes, and there was a three-putt in there and a two chip and it wasn't just his bad shots. I always look and think that you have to pick the low hanging fruit first, and I think the three-putt from 10 feet would be the lowest hanging fruit that there was in those 36 holes.

But, somehow, everybody had it figured out that all of a sudden his swing is no good. He's human, and it happens, and you have bad days, you have bad six holes, and he finished no worse than 11th in any stroke play event except for one, and in that one, he had a bad six hole stretch.

FanHouse: Yeah, I try to get that across to people that you have to understand that it's still this game that's really hard to master. The fact that Tiger blew up so quickly, and won so many tournaments in a row, people haven't ever done what he did before.

Haney: Yeah, exactly. And they criticize him all the time for his driving and everything; he's like sixth on the tour or seventh in total driving. You measure distance and accuracy, and that isn't even an accurate measurement because everyone knows that distance is more important, but even if you give it 50 percent distance, 50 percent accuracy, he's seventh on the tour in total driving, but yet, somehow, there is this perception that he doesn't drive it good.

FanHouse: And after Turnberry, did you guys go at the practice harder? Because after the missed cut, he went three wins and three seconds in seven tournaments.

Haney: He just sticks to what he's doing. Tiger is good at sticking to his plan, sticking to what he's working on. He doesn't let highs and lows bother him, and that's one of the things that he's good at, and frankly, it's one of the things that I think is a parallel between what I do in golf instruction and what Charles Schwab does in investments. You have to have a plan, you have to stick to that plan, you can't let an up-and-down throw you totally off course, you have to be patient, and it's one of the reasons why I'm so excited to have a partnership like I have with Charles Schwab is because there are so many parallels between golf and investing, and obviously Charles Schwab is an incredible sponsor of the PGA Tour. There are a lot of similarities that you can see in the two areas.

FanHouse: And what is your partnership going to be with Charles Schwab?

Haney: One thing we've got is a great website, and I give some exclusive golf tips on there, and we've also got quite a few experts from Charles Schwab that give financial planning advice on retirement and saving for college and just a lot of investment advice that you can find on the website, and just drawing some parallels between the two. Being patient, and having a plan, and those are important if you want to get better at golf and they're important if you want to play for the future.

FanHouse: Okay, I have to talk about Charles Barkley for a minute. He was your first student on The Haney Project and I haven't watched a more entertaining show in a while. Was it as fun as it looked and was it as challenging as it looked?

Haney: Charles is one of my favorite people in the world. He's just a great person, he's a great ambassador for sports in general and he's the most gracious professional athlete I've ever been around, so it's just a lot of fun.

Now, as far as his golf as concerned (laughs), that's why it was called The Project. It was a project, and it's the ultimate challenge for a teacher. You love having a challenge like that. I would have liked to have done better, but you realize that, hey, it's not easy. It's a tough game and he's got a tough problem. I enjoyed the whole process and especially enjoyed being with Charles, who's just a good guy.

FanHouse: And he seemed like he would work as hard as you'd push him.

Haney: He wasn't going to give in. He tries hard. He works hard. He didn't give up. It's just a hard game.

FanHouse: And upcoming, you'll be filming The Haney Project with Ray Romano.

Haney: I'm starting this weekend, and I'm looking forward to that because Ray is a real passionate golfer, wants to improve, wants to get better. Obviously, he's an incredibly gifted performer, so it should be a lot of fun.

FanHouse: And finally, with the Presidents Cup coming up, what do you see as something that Tiger, or any of the golfers involved in the event, do differently, playing in a team event?

Haney: I think a lot of the players feel more pressure playing in a team event because they don't want to let their team down or their captain down or their country down. You see a little different kind of pressure and that's kind of fun to watch, to see how the different players handle it.

I think the Presidents Cup is great. It's a little more relaxed atmosphere, fun to watch, and should be great golf, and really entertaining.

FanHouse: Well, great. Thanks for talking to us, Hank. We appreciate it.