Tiger Woods / Ralph Ellis / 19 May 2010 / Leave a Comment

Tiger Woods new coach, whoever he turns out to be, will be charged with the task of making the world number one believe in himself again, says Ralph Ellis. But will it happen in time for a major win in 2010?

Roger Federer is pretty busy at the moment. There's a French Open title to defend, then an assault on a seventh Wimbledon title. All of which means he won't have too much time to help out his mate Tiger Woods.

Which is a pity, because it strikes me that the world's greatest tennis player is exactly the person that the world's greatest golfer needs to put his career back on track. And Tiger's looking for a new coach right now, isn't he?

As if being dumped by swing coach Hank Haney last week wasn't bad enough, he's now been snubbed a second time by Butch Harmon, the man who originally moulded his raw talent to create the planet's most iconic sportsman. Woods asked his agent Mark Steinberg to sound out Harmon about a reunion, and got a curt reply along the lines of "thanks very much but I'd sooner carry on helping Phil Mickelson take over your number one slot".

There's a long list of alternative candidates being touted around this morning. Maybe Sean Doyle, who coaches Justin Rose, or possibly Mike Abbott, who was seen in deep conversation with Tiger while he was practising with his leading player Pat Perez during the Players' Championship at Sawgrass. Harmon's reformed alcoholic brother Billy, who has spent years mentoring Jay Haas, is another who would fancy the gig.

Now no doubt there's a few technical bits to alter his swing plane a millimetre or two, or change the club face angle half a degree, or push his left foot slightly further from his right. Whatever. It's not really a golf coach that Tiger needs.

What he wants at the moment is a mind coach, somebody to believe in him and, more importantly, make him believe in himself again. Somebody who can take away all the confusion of his private world crashing around and help him think of nothing else, at least while he's out on a golf course, than hitting that little white ball into the hole underneath the flag in as few shots as possible.

That's where his mate Federer would be perfect. Around this time two years ago we were all writing columns about how his era was over; how becoming a husband and dad had changed his focus; how when Rafael Nadal beat him at Wimbledon 2008 it signalled the changing of the guard.

Guess what? Federer got back to his best so easily that with one down and three to go he's a ridiculously short [12.5] to join Don Budge and Rod Laver as the only men in the last 72 years of tennis history to win all four Grand Slams in one season.

If he gets his mind right, Woods is more than capable of making the same sort of surging comeback. And he clearly wants to, because he's just confirmed he'll be at St Andrew's for The Open as well as at Pebble Beach next month for the US Open.

Regular readers will know I've been laying Tiger for No Majors since January, and with the price currently between [1.42] and [1.6] I've just increased my exposure a bit more. Federer will be too busy to help, of course. But is there any chance of at least an encouraging phone call?

Five things you might not know about Butch Harmon

1. Born August 1943 and raised in New Rochelle, New York, his first name is Claude, named after his golf professional dad who became 1948 Masters champion

2. At New Rochelle High School he was the star half back in the 1961 American Football team

3. He served for three years in the US Army and led a mortar crew on active service in the Vietnam war, surviving one attack in which a friend was killed

4. After four years as an average touring pro, his coaching career took off when he went to Morocco in the early 1970s as the personal instructor to King Hassan II

5. During his 11 year stint as Woods coach from 1993 to 2004, he was paid just 50,000 dollars a year for working exclusively for Tiger. The following year he coached 18 different professionals, and asked them all to pay nothing but write a cheque at the end of the season for what they felt he was worth.

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