FanHouse CharlesBarkley

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]

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.

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.

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.

Tuesday night, the TNT studio crew (minus Ernie Johnson) went apoplectic because of comments Dirk Nowitzki made regarding the successful fashion in which Denver's forwards and centers defended him in Game 1. In short, Dirk said that the Nugget big men were good, long and daunting. To Chris Webber, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, this was the equivalent of concession.

Even as Dirk destroyed Denver on offense in the first half, the crew kept it up. No elite scorer admits he can be stopped or stunted, argued a nearly in tears Webber. Ball Don't Lie's Kelly Dwyer accurately refuted this line of thinking Wednesday, and his commentary is pitch perfect. Webber, Barkley and Smith (in that order) were ridiculously off-base.

But don't think this has limited scope, that the comments about Dirk were just stupid in a vacuum of bad. That exact philosophy of man is the sort of thing that allows Kobe Bryant to taunt Shane Battier for 48 minutes ... and be heroicized for it.

If the LPGA was looking for an energy boost after three weeks of no tournaments, they might have got it.

On Thursday at the Corona Championship, the LPGA's current star and hopeful star both played out of their minds, as Lorena Ochoa carded an 8-under 65 to lead all golfers and Michelle Wie is just a shot back at 7-under.

When talking about John Madden's legacy, MDS has it right: he's an "American original", and football will be worse off without him. NBC has already named Cris Collinsworth as his successor, and that softens the blow, but no one will ever replace Madden.

It's not all bad news, though; Madden video games will live on, and Frank Caliendo's impersonation of Madden will not. Via CNBC.com's Darren Rovell: