FanHouse Charles Barkley

Eleven days ago, this was news: Tiger Woods and Hank Haney were working hard to fix his driver. Actually, that's been the story for most of Tiger's career, but it was especially relevant because he was coming off an uninspiring performance (as uninspiring as another top-10 finish can be, I guess) at Quail Hollow, and the Memorial and the U.S. Open were the next two tournaments on his schedule.

Tiger went out and hit 84 percent of his fairways at Jack's event, won convincingly, and now that the golf universe has righted itself, we're all able to get on with our lives. For Woods that means preparing for Bethpage Black, and in his spare time, trying to fix the unfixable: Charles Barkley's golf swing.

In an effort to keep our golf visitors well informed on what is going on around the Internet, Range Balls is our weekly link dump. Every Tuesday during golf season, we will toss out some of the most interesting things we came across. If you have a tip, e-mail us at fanhousegolf@gmail.com. Enjoy the links.

-- In a lengthy piece about "The Haney Project," Charles Barkley admits that he "felt bad, to be honest with you, that I didn't improve more for (Hank Haney)." If anyone watched the television show, they know how much the two worked together, but from this video at the Regions Charity Classic, it sure shows the nasty truth -- swing coaches aren't miracle workers. [The Sports Network]

Warning: Explicit language, and potentially NSFW, adjust your volume accordingly:



Charles Barkley has always been one to speak his mind, but his snarky reaction to Kenny Smith's interruption and the not-so-subtle name-calling directed at producer Tim Kiely last night were a bit of surprise -- until you realize these were the final minutes of the final Inside the NBA telecast of the season. It's like the last day of school before summer vacation -- what's the worst that can happen? A few months of vacation will ease the sting of even the most vicious finger-wagging.

The TNT "Inside the NBA" guys -- Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith -- always have funny little postgame gimmicks (provided you think "crappy photoshops" are "funny") but last night they busted out a remake of the famed Cleveland Tourism Video (note: it's fake people) which included little bits mocking the various analysts. And if that wasn't enough to get me on board, they also poked fun at Kyra Sedgwick.

Via NESW Sports.

CLEVELAND -- In any other city, any other country or planet or solar system, a 22-point lead would be enough to soothe any psychosis. Not here, though. The good people of Cleveland realize not to grow overly giddy about any perceived edge, having experienced every imaginable collapse, heartbreak, shot, fumble, drive, blown save and choke job in the most cursed ongoing existence of any American sports town.

And sure enough Thursday evening, that 22-point lead disappeared in a matter of 13 minutes in the second and third quarters, a stunning and confounding blackout even by northeast Ohio standards. Earlier, the fans had saved their loudest boos for Alex Rodriguez, C.C. Sabathia, Ben Roethlisberger and other local pariahs watching in Quicken Loans Arena. A minute into the second half, when Orlando party boy Hedo Turkoglu -- in the bar again on Game 5 eve -- hit a three-pointer from Lake Erie and gave the Magic the lead, those boos were turned toward an unthinkable target.

Their very own Cleveland Cavaliers, featuring the lifeblood of a city and its fleeing dreams, LeBron Raymone James.

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Auburn's new coach Gene Chizik has remained under the radar thus far. Fortunately here at the ClayNation column we became aware that each new coach has to stand up and introduce himself to the other SEC coaches at the annual coaches meeting.

Fortunately we were able to capture the entirety of this fabricated introduction. And now we can fabricate it for your enjoyment today. Meet Gene Chizik. Already his introductory speech is being called the Gettysburg Address of Auburn football.

CLEVELAND -- That would be for Michael Jordan. And for Earnest Byner. And for John Elway. And for Jose Mesa. And for all the years of pain and woe and throbbing heartbreak. A second earlier, all 20,000 fans had been standing in numb horror, feeling the familiar sickness in the stomach as another double-digit lead had drained into something more hideous than Craig Sager's wardrobe.

Why did Sports Illustrated put LeBron James on the cover and jinx the Cavaliers? Why did Charles Barkley describe Cleveland as "the mistake on the lake" and "a dreary ass city" recently? Why were the sporting gods so cruel? Why is the world so mean? Why would the The Shot and The Fumble and The Drive be followed by The Hedo Shuffle, courtesy of Hedo Turkoglu, who just the night before had been out fairly late in a downtown bar?

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Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley can't avoid the playful jabs of Saturday Night Live any longer. Actually, it's ubiquitous house ads that earn most of the scorn here, along with ... Ray Allen? The sketch has Allen getting injured in today's Game 7. Methinks some SNL writer doesn't care for the Celtics. (Sully would have never let this happen.) Video hat tip to Awful Announcing. (Anyone else excited about Mark?)

So, yeah, Hank Haney's had a tough 2009. Tiger's struggling (not really, but that's the perception, which is sometimes worse), and Haney's other high-profile student, Charles Barkley, has made little progress in conquering the demons that possess his golf swing. And that was after more than nine months of work.

On Thursday, the Birmingham News Jon Solomon saw Barkley's "new" swing in action at the Regions Charity Classic and it looked a lot like the "old" swing that landed Chuck his own reality show. On the No. 6 tee, Barkley, presumably aiming for the fairway, missed. That may be understating it a tad. On the upside, spectator Tommy Parrish, standing obscenely close to the tee box ("a couple of hundred of feet away"), now has a story for the Kiwanis Club meetings. (Moving pictures after the jump.)

Lee Trevino is 69 years old, has 87 professional wins, including six majors. He knows something about the golf swing. And now Trevino, nicknamed the "Merry Mex" for his sunny disposition, would like to talk to Tiger Woods about how to fix whatever it is he's been doing off the tee this season.

Earlier this week, NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller suggested Woods leave his driver at home (Tiger politely declined), and it has gotten so bad that folks are making fat jokes about Tiger while simultaneously discussing Phil Mickelson. Ironical.