FanHouse HankHaney

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.

The U.S. Open is a formality at this point; Tiger Woods is winning it -- just like he did in 2002, the first time the tournament came to Bethpage Black -- because, well, Shane Bacon says so. Alright, maybe that's overstating it, but Tiger now has two wins this season, which, historically, is like giving him a four-stroke lead before he steps on the first tee. It doesn't help the field.

On Monday, hours after going to town on Muirfield Village, Woods headed to Farmington, NY to play a practice round at Bethpage Black. That's not atypical -- players routinely check out the major venues weeks, and sometimes months, before the tournament.

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]

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.)

Each Wednesday during the golf season, FanHouse will list the top five names in golf and why they're important. Did Barack play 18 with Tiger? Did a certain player do something controversial off the course? Or was just playing golf enough to get the pot stirring? Join us for a new weekly ranking feature we call Making the Cut.

5. Tony Romo -- He might have failed to qualify for the Byron Nelson Championship, but Romo reminded us yet again that he is the best golfing quarterback in the world. Also, he reminded us that even the top tier athletes can utterly choke it on the golf course. Two-over par with three holes to play, Romo could have thrown in a couple of birdies and hoped even par would get into the next stage of qualifying. A triple-bogey followed by closing bogeys was visual evidence that our affection towards golf can change from love to hate quicker than a hook will snap.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- It took two shots for Tiger Woods to throw his club. Two. The final pairing, the red shirt, the killer instinct. You know, the usual. Except it was going to be a mind thing for Woods to win the Players Championship Sunday because his swing is all wrong.

Turned out, though, his mind was crumbling from the start. And when the real tiger stood up Sunday, he was a Swede named Henrik Stenson. A cool, calm, killer. By far, he was the toughest guy out there.

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Tiger's been here before at Augusta. Seven times, in fact, he's failed to break 70 in the first two rounds of the Masters, and seven times he's watched someone else slip on a green jacket Sunday evening.

The birdie putt was said to be 15 feet. In truth, the ball exploded from the 72nd green at Bay Hill and shot through the consciousness of every golfer not named Tiger Woods, torturing the collective psyche of the so-called competition. If there were any doubts that Woods would be less than his indomitable self after knee surgery, his final-hole victory in the Florida darkness zapped the uncertainty like radiation treatment, leaving rivals with a familiar tsunami of dread.

Which might explain why Woods, healthier and happier than at any point in his epic career, dared to venture Tuesday into the same rare territory he did a year ago. He was asked again, in the interview room at Augusta National, if he could win the Grand Slam this year. Without hesitation, he said yes.

John Daly is serving a six-month ban from the PGA Tour for various transgressions, most having to do with Hooters. Last month Shane mentioned that Big John would make his return to professional golf sometime soon, and probably on the European circuit.

Last week, Tiger Woods hinted that his return to the PGA Tour would be contingent on the birth of his second child. And now that Charlie Axel Woods has safely made his way into this world, it sounds like Tiger is plotting his return to competitive golf.

In fact, Woods had coach Hank Haney on the horn some 24 hours after Charlie was born, asking "When you coming back down here?"

Via Golf.com's Art Stricklin: