FanHouse Butch Harmon

Adam Scott was the third-ranked player in the world a year ago. Now, he's 46th and falling. He's fresh off a missed cut at the PGA Championship, carding 82-79 for a two-day, 17-over finish that left him outside the line by 13 strokes.

His Hazeltine experience has been a microcosm of his season. But as John Paul Newport, writing in the Wall Street Journal, pointed out Saturday, there are mitigating circumstances.

"The 29-year-old broke a hand last year and split with his longtime girlfriend, but his biggest problem is putting. In 2008 he led the Tour in putts from 10 feet to 15 feet and was third from 15 feet to 20 feet. This year he ranks 192nd and 152nd, respectively."

Whenever Tiger Woods struggles, Hank Haney's job security becomes a popular topic. It's been that way ... well, since they started working together in 2004, yet here we are, five years later, and they're still a team. And Woods' major championship winning percentage with Haney (.300) is slightly higher than it was with Butch Harmon (.286). This seems important.

Woods won for the fourth time this year at last week's Buick Open, and he's in position to do it again at Firestone. Still, the rumors remain. The latest -- that Dale Lynch, currently coaching Geoff Ogilvy and Aaron Baddeley, was in line for the gig -- has been debunked by the Brisbane Times' Peter Stone.

Shortly after Tiger Woods missed the cut at the British Open, it began. The talk that Hank Haney, Woods' swing coach since 2004, needed to go. It happens almost every time Woods doesn't win, even though Tiger's major championship winning percentage is slightly higher with Haney (.300) than Butch Harmon (.286).

But that's part of the deal when working with the world's best golfer: instant celebrity at the expense of klieg-light scrutiny. Yesterday, as Woods prepared for a three-tournament stretch in as many weeks (culminating in the PGA Championship), Haney spoke about the expectations that come with being a part of Team Tiger. Via ESPN.com's Bob Harig:

It doesn't matter how well Tiger Woods has previously played, or how many top 10s he has logged, when he has a poor week -- especially if that somehow includes a missed cut -- the reaction is predictable: Tiger needs to a) fix his swing and b) jettison Hank Haney for good measure.

I can't disagree with tightening up his swing -- Tiger looked like a 4-handicapper at Turnberry -- but Woods continues to support Haney, at least publicly. Skepticism remains (via Gold Digest's Local Knowledge blog):

John Daly spent the first half of the year in Europe, playing tournaments on that tour while he waited out his PGA Tour-sanctioned six-month suspension. He returned to the States at the St. Jude Classic two weeks ago, and relatively speaking, played well.

Nothing spectacular, but he made the cut. Given how last season unfolded -- it started with Butch Harmon dumping him a few months after they started working together, and it ended with a bucket of hot wings and an orange jumpsuit -- it was a welcome change.

But Golf Digest's John Strege makes an interesting point about the new-and-improved John Daly: despite the physical and mental changes, the results aren't much different from '08, perhaps the most forgettable year in a career littered with them.

Rumor spread a few years ago at a golf course outside Chicago, that John Daly, who was supposed to be there, had had a heart attack and died. The next day, he showed up at his practice round.

Afterward, as he stuffed his clubs into the trunk of the car, prepared to head off to Hooters for an autograph session, and stopped for a quick smoke, I talked with him in the parking lot.

John Daly is all about reinventing himself. Usually, it's preceded by an intervention or a stint in rehab, and often brought on by a beer and hot wings bender at the nearest Hooters. Well, Hooters, known for their high standards and exclusivity, no longer sponsors Daly.

Save the mustache and the mullet, the John Daly who won the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick looks a lot like the guy who finished second at last week's Italian Open. The new JD -- 40 pounds lighter and now taking fashion advice from Craig Sager -- finally seems committed to saving his golf career after years of interventions, rehab and falling off the wagon. It's a refreshing change, frankly.

PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem suspended Daly for the first six months of the 2009 season, presumably in response to his latest beer-and-wings-fueled mayhem. But instead of seeking solace at the nearest Hooters, Daly decided to rededicate himself to golf. Again. Last year, golf instructor to the stars Butch Harmon dumped Big John after four months, citing that the most important thing in Daly's life "was getting drunk."

Like Torrey Pines in 2008, this year's U.S. Open is being played at a unique destination: Bethpage. The course is unique for a number of reasons. First, if you have the patience to sleep in your car overnight, you and I could get on Bethpage Black for around $100 and play the same golf course that the pros will be teeing it up on in less than two months. Also, it might just be the toughest course in the country, boasting the famous sign outside that warns, "Warning: The Black course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers."

Now, as it turns out, if you're lucky enough to win the 2009 Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge, a contest that's open to the public, you'll not only get a chance to play Bethpage, but you'll do it with Michael Jordan, Justin Timberlake and Ben Roethlisberger, who recently announced he'd participate this year.

It's like a game of Clue, only the players are a bunch of "friends" of a golf star that may or may not be returning to the course over the next few weeks. Like, "I'll take Tiger Woods, with a 4-iron, at Doral."

Now Tiger's caddie Steve Williams is the latest to chime in on when Mr. Woods will be gracing us with his golfing presence, telling a New Zealand television station that Woods is "a few weeks" from returning to the PGA Tour.