Tiger Woods’ ex coach has a 4-word message for his winning swing at the 2006 Open Championship

Tiger Woods may be missing from the 2025 Open Championship due to injury, but his legendary swing continues to spark admiration. Recently, a short video clip featuring Woods’ iconic swing went viral. His 2006 Open Championship-winning swing resurfaced on social media. Tour Pro posted the clip on July 15 on X.

It caught more attention when Woods' ex-coach Hank Haney reposted this on July 16. He captioned it as:

"Such a great swing."

While the caption of the original post reads:

Throwback to Tiger Woods holing out for eagle with a 4 iron at the 2006 Open Championship on his way to victory. One of the all time great shots of his career."

Together, they won 31 tournaments, including six Major championships. Haney started working with Woods in March 2004, right after the latter had gone two years without a Major win. Woods went on to win multiple PGA Tour events every year under Haney’s coaching. From 2005 to 2008, he was practically unstoppable.

Tiger Woods won the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool with precision and control. Across 72 holes, he used his driver only once. The course was firm and dry, allowing long irons to roll far down the fairway. He hit nearly every fairway and missed just four all week. He scored 67, 65, 71 and 67 in the four rounds, finishing at 18-under 270, two shots ahead of Chris DiMarco.

It was his third Open title and 11th major win. He also became the first to defend The Open since Tom Watson in 1983. However, Woods is still recovering from Achilles surgery after an injury in early 2025. The 15-time Major champion hasn’t played in any of this year’s Majors. Apart from that, ahead of the 2024 Open Championship, Hank Haney felt Woods had his best opportunity there.

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Hank Haney once backed The Open as Tiger Woods’ only real chance at winning again

In July 2024, ahead of the Open Championship at Royal Troon, Hank Haney claimed that The Open was Tiger Woods’ best chance to win again. Haney, who coached Woods from 2004 to 2010, said on X:

A lot of people thought Augusta was Tiger’s best chance to ever win again. It’s wasn’t, it was always the Open Championship for multiple reasons, he can hit shots like this, slower greens mean fewer 3 putts and no one has more knowledge about playing links golf." "Based on what he’s done so far this year it’s kind of looking like now or never. His swing looks really good in practice," he added.

Haney and Woods won 31 titles together, including six Majors, two of which were back-to-back Open wins in 2005 and 2006. After their split, Woods added 11 more titles, with the 2019 Masters being his only Major win since.

Edited by Luke Koshi