my jaw, I put the tongue at the top of my mouth”—well, that did it. He had gone over the brink of reason and it would have surprised no one had he cut off his own ear with a 1-iron. After piling up those majors, why didn’t Harrington stop messing about and simply keep doing what he was doing? “That would have been impos- sible,” he says. “That’s not how I got there. That’s probably the key.” This is the mindset of every great
champion, including those who have gone astray. Tiger Woods’ long- standing mantra captures his zero- sum worldview: “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” In winning the 1991 British Open,
Ian Baker-Finch shot one of the best fi nal rounds in major championship history, hitting every fairway and green at Royal Birkdale en route to a 66. “After that,” he said, “I felt I should contend in every major.” So he took his lovely, compact swing and
made it longer and looser, looking for the mythical 15 extra yards. What followed was the worst slump in golf history. By 1995 he was so lost he didn’t make a cut in 24 tournaments, breaking par in only two rounds. To be sure, Baker-Finch’s problems eventually became more mental than physical, but along the way he worked with a dizzying array of swing coaches, including brand names like David Leadbetter, Hank Haney, Jim Flick, Rick Smith, and Chuck Cook, not to mention all seven coaches at Baker- Finch’s own Pure Golf Academy on Australia’s Gold Coast, near Brisbane. “Ian needed just one pill, and instead he took the whole bottle,” Leadbetter said. Eventually, Baker-Finch lost sight of the action that had brought him so much success in the fi rst place. “My muscles have no memory of that old swing,” he told Sports Illustrated. “It’s gone forever.”
Padraig Harrington won three major championships in the span of 13 months, but then he dumped his longtime swing coach Bob Torrance. He hasn’t won a major since.
With Haney’s help, Tiger evolved from a home run hitter to more of a batting champion.
Woods traded in his ability to destroy fields with Harmon’s swing by switching to Hank Haney. The change did put Woods in contention to win more often.
SPRING 2015 /
NCGA.ORG / 25
PHOTO: AP
PHOTO: AP
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