Tiger Woods ex coach HITS OUT at Rory McIlroy drop on 18 at Tour Championship
Golf coach Hank Haney raises questions over Rory McIlroy's drop on 18, and then insisted the Tour is only interested in the money instead of growing the game.
Tiger Woods' former golf coach Hank Haney has hit out at Rory McIlroy's drop by the grandstands on the 18th hole en route to becoming the first player to win the FedEx Cup three times.
Haney has seemingly been firing shots at the PGA Tour on his Twitter feed for a while now, and he even raised serious question marks over the Northern Irishman's free drop after his swing was impeded by the grandstands left of 18 on Sunday night.
Not that it would have mattered but I don’t get it. Rory’s ball was still behind his marker twice after dropping it and twice after placing it and then he got to place it again. Looked like you can just keep placing it until you have the ball on a tee
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) August 28, 2022
"Not that it would have mattered but I don’t get it," tweeted Haney.
"Rory’s ball was still behind his marker twice after dropping it and twice after placing it and then he got to place it again. Looked like you can just keep placing it until you have the ball on a tee."
A golf fan then commented: "I don’t think it moved when he placed. It just sunk. He didn’t like it so he placed it again, more gently! Looked like a breach to me."
Haney replied: "The ref was telling Rory what to do, I didn’t understand the ruling, bouncing closer to the hole then where it lay I understand but sinking in the grass I don’t get and if the ball is dropped 2” back and jumps 1” forward but is still 1” back of the line he set, I didn’t get that."
The ref was telling Rory what to do, I didn’t understand the ruling, bouncing closer to the hole then where it lay I understand but sinking in the grass I don’t get and if the ball is dropped 2” back and jumps 1” forward but is still 1” back of the line he set, I didn’t get that https://t.co/HqWstjTbyE
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) August 29, 2022
McIlroy eventually chipped his third shot past the hole and then two-putted for par for a narrow one-shot victory and the biggest tournament pay cheque of his career of $18 million.
Haney, who coached Woods from 2004 to 2010 during a span that saw him with six majors, also fired shots at the PGA Tour following the conclusion of the Tour Championship by claiming they are only interested in the "money" instead of "growing the game".
PGA Tour star Max Homa joked that he hoped LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman saw Haney's tweet, at least for his sake.
Hope Greg sees this, bro https://t.co/b4HNa5Ps0U
— max homa (@maxhoma23) August 29, 2022
Rory has all the money anyone could ever hope for. @LIVGolfInv has been great for the players that left and for the players that stayed. I think it remains to be seen whether it’s good or bad for the game but if that’s a concern then everyone needs to figure out how to co-exist https://t.co/UKAUfJX52C
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) August 29, 2022
I love how if you’re a fan of the PGA Tour but you don’t think everything is great about it and if you think competition makes everyone better and you think it’s good that players make a lot of money, then people call you a lot of bad things, pretty amazing
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) August 29, 2022
The PGA Tour last week launched some huge new plans to tackle the threat posed by the LIV Golf Tour.
McIlroy and Woods also revealed plans for a new Monday Night Golf League.
Last week, Haney hit out at LIV Golf Tour players not receiving Official World Golf Ranking points in their tournaments.
