Tour News

Michael Breed talks Tiger’s woes, new swing and more

Published

9 years ago

Dec 12, 2014

Former PGA National Teacher of the Year, Michael Breed is one of the most well-regarded and highly visible pros in the game, thanks to his show, The Golf Fix, on Golf Channel, and his years in the instruction business.

It only seemed natural, then, to pick his brain about one of the most highly visible golfers on Tour: Tiger Woods.

I wanted to see what Mr. Breed had to say about Woods’ chipping and pitching issues in his return at last week’s Hero World Challenge. I also wanted to get Breed’s take on Woods’ decision to join forces with the relatively low-profile Chris Como and his use of the phrase “consultant,” rather than “coach” when referring to Como.

And since all crystal balls aren’t created alike, I wanted to see what Breed was expecting to see out of the former world No. 1 this year.

Check out what he had to say below.

The topics are in bold with Breed’s replies below.

[youtube id=”97JivmqfL0g” width=”620″ height=”360″]

Tiger Woods’ short game issues at the Hero World Challenge

At the very highest level, the way top players practice, around 70 percent of the time they spend in the short game. Whenever you’re going through some sort of a swing change or some sort of a recovery from injury, that time tends to shift…early on in recovery from injury, you’re going spend even more time, maybe 100 percent, working on your swing.

What he’s trying to evaluate is when he’s physically capable of coming back and hitting a golf ball. This is a guy spending the vast majority of his time working on his swing, assessing whether his body can do this repeatedly…over a series of days.

He’s working on rehabilitating the body. He’s working on changing his golf swing. The mind becomes very analytical, and short game is the least analytical of anything that you’re doing. It wouldn’t be uncommon, then, for him to be thinking a little more analytically about his short game.

The final thing: He’s made some changes in his swing, and those things can’t help but transfer into the short game. [He’s] a little taller. His grip is a little bit different. The amount of face rotation is varied. As that all is taking place, he’s going to hit some chunk shots.

It’s not a major championship and that’s all Tiger cares about. Still, it’s not the norm, and it’s a bit of a surprise. If he goes out at Torrey Pines and we see some of that stuff, you have cause to be alerted…not alarmed, but alerted.

What we can expect to see from Chris Como and Tiger

Chris a very talented instructor and he’s capable of solving all facets of Tiger. But I think Tiger is calling him a consultant for a reason: Tiger’s going to steer this ship.

I think this is the final version…this relationship with Chris will be the one that lasts through the rest of his playing days.

Golf swings are like martial arts…as long as you stay in your discipline, you’re fine. The problem is when you start mixing. It takes Tiger about a year and a half before he gets comfortable with what he’s doing…it’s going to take a year.

His expectations for Tiger in the majors

The whole question is: can Tiger hit the shots he needs to hit in a major on the weekend under the gun? Whether he wins 79 tournaments or 87 tournaments I don’t think matters to him.

He’ll get that golf swing to where he wants to get it. The only question is, “How is Tiger going to perform on Sunday or the Masters, U.S. Open, British, or PGA?”

What he thinks of what he’s seen so far

I think what he’s doing is great. I’m a big fan of width in the golf swing. We all see the width that he has…how light the left leg looks in the backswing…his left leg had looked very heavy to me in the backswing…not a lot of weight on it. This allows him to be a little taller, have a little more width…that’s the style of motion that I prefer.

Comparisons with the “early swing” Tiger is looking to for inspiration

In ’97, he did have a light left leg and tremendous width; a lot of left side/right side…not a one-post motion. But at the same time, he played shut-faced and across-the-line. He had a very difficult time controlling his distance.

If you watch the impact in ’97 and with Butch…[the club] goes basically through his right shoulder. At impact his arms were away from him…he had a lot of space…when he’s not able to maintain spine angle, the proximity of his hands to his body is too close.

Then he started to get the club shaft a little bit more on-plane and the club face a little bit squarer. He started to gain distance control. The most important thing in winning majors…with your irons is distance control. You have to control spin rate and trajectory. That’s why he changed the swing in ’97: he didn’t have distance control

I’m going to be looking at his distance control in his early part of the year.

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36 Comments

JEFF

Dec 18, 2014 at 3:39 pm

I am going out on a line and making a statement that many will disagree with……. WHO THE “F” cares!

Reply Report comment
TheFightingEdFioris

Dec 15, 2014 at 12:29 pm

Everyone’s negativity on here is always shocking to me… I hate when people say things behind a keyboard that they wouldn’t say face to face. Just my opinion, though.

Reply Report comment
TheFightingEdFioris

Dec 15, 2014 at 12:25 pm

Very impressed with this write-up. Nice to see just how knowledgeable Breed is when he has a chance to really go in-depth. His insight into Tiger’s flaws in his ’97 swing and his need for a “light left leg” is very cool. Thanks for this, new found respect for Breed!

Reply Report comment
SBoss

Dec 14, 2014 at 10:09 am

I like Breed but whenever I see an article on analyzing Tiger, its rare that anyone says anything negative. It’s always so positive that you can’t get any real insight. Tiger is NOT nearly what he was before 2008. He’s NOT coming back to that level and he won’t be close to that level.

His knee is a huge factor and its gone unnoticed relative to his back. I know someone whose friends with his orthopedic surgeon and he said the knee is as serious as the back in the long run…he will need knee replacement down the road.

Tiger also doesn’t have the same drive as he did. It’s blatantly obvious. Just the fact that he shows up to these tournaments with his game not up to par proves he doesn’t care as much. The old Tiger would NEVER have showed up and have his D game on full display. When he came back in July, he was a MESS and that was before his back flared up. The pride in his performance was missing. Same as the latest tourney where he Chili-dipped numerous chips and finished LAST in his own event. The old Tiger wouldn’t have showed up in that condition. Because when you do those things in front of your peers, it takes the mystique off of you. They see you and have no fear. They see you as human. The old Tiger was outside of this planet and the players feared him….

That fear of him is so far gone it’ll NEVER reappear. Tiger knows it. His self belief is not close to the old days and that is gone for good too.Tiger will win more tourneys but his Nicklaus chase is effectively over.
I wish that people would stop fearing his retribution and analyze his game with an honest eye. If they did, they would tell the world that this Tiger Woods is nothing to fear.

Reply Report comment
Jim Imrie

Dec 14, 2014 at 8:02 am

I bought Michael Breeds instruction DVD’s and sent them back. If he is as good as everyone says. He needs to answer questions about what he says on the DVD’s because they totally contradict what I know about the golf swing. I do not think that is what he meant to say. But he is sure not helping himself by not answering questions about what he is saying.

Reply Report comment
Alex

Dec 14, 2014 at 4:20 am

One or two good thoughts. But nothing new. I’d like to hear more about Tiger’s swing technique.

Reply Report comment
MPB

Dec 13, 2014 at 10:56 pm

Michael Bread……. What’s “The British Open”? Do you mean “The Open Championship”? At least you didn’t call The Masters “The Georgia Invitational”!

Reply Report comment
- Steve
  
  Dec 13, 2014 at 11:44 pm
  
  Wow your awesome, way to add.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - MPB
    
    Dec 14, 2014 at 12:24 am
    
    Sorry Steve. You’re correct of course. I should have added more to that post. Scotland, the country where the game is regarded as being invented, holds the majority of Open Championships and is home to the R & A is not even in Britain. It is in Great Britain so at the very least Michael should have incorrectly called it the Great British Open. I wonder what Michael and others who don’t aren’t sure of their golfing geography will call The Open Championship when it returns to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland in 2019. “The United Kingdom Championship”? I know I don’t get invited to many dinner parties but there are only 4 majors. How hard can it be? Happy golfing…..
    
    Reply Report comment
    - james
      
      Dec 14, 2014 at 1:14 pm
      
      it is the British open the 3rd best tournament in golf
      
      Reply Report comment
    - Andrew Cooper
      
      Dec 16, 2014 at 3:50 am
      
      MPB, a little geography lesson…Scotland is British (as is England, Wales and NI-the “home nations”), Scots have British passports. NI isn’t in Great Britain (geographically-it is on a different island) but it is British too. The UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and NI.
      
      Reply Report comment
      - MPB
        
        Dec 17, 2014 at 8:32 am
        
        Andrew – Close but no cigar. For golf tournaments we are talking geographically, not nationality!
        Britain is England and Wales.
        Great Britain is England, Wales and Scotland. If you lose Scotland you lose the ‘Great’. Didn’t you follow the Scottish independence vote recently?
        The United Kingdom (The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to give it its full name)is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
        The British Isles are England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland plus the UK Crown Dependencies which are the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands and the 5000 other smaller islands that dot the coast lines of the British Isles.
        
        Reply Report comment
gvogel

Dec 13, 2014 at 10:31 pm

On behalf of all the non-Tiger fans who didn’t read this thread: who cares?

Reply Report comment
RG

Dec 13, 2014 at 6:24 pm

So now Tiger admits he spent the last 12 years trying to change his swing and now he wants to go back? Tiger used to always say he didn’t think his body could hold up, and that was why he changed. It looks to me like his body has done worse with the changes he’s tried.
I think the guy is fighting himself between the ears. He’s scared.

Reply Report comment
Dpavs

Dec 13, 2014 at 11:58 am

Bubba-

A bit harsh on the language used to make your point so I can’t condone that.

Anyway you should know not to mess with Pan.

Reply Report comment
Jake Anderson

Dec 13, 2014 at 5:35 am

Top players don’t practice 70 % short game, because it is not that important. They practice the long game way more.

Reply Report comment
- chris
  
  Dec 13, 2014 at 7:51 am
  
  Jake you are sadly mistaken.
  
  Reply Report comment
- t-ball
  
  Dec 13, 2014 at 9:38 am
  
  I would say maybe close to 80% short game.
  
  Reply Report comment
- RG
  
  Dec 13, 2014 at 6:18 pm
  
  You are obviously not a top player.
  
  Reply Report comment
- Gorden
  
  Dec 13, 2014 at 7:31 pm
  
  What ever the pros pratice most it all works….having been to several tournaments I am always amazed at the second shot..between about 220 and in the pros are hitting amazingly close, not just hitting the green but getting in position to make putts. I think we hear so much about practicing the short game because short pitches and chips are the one thing (and only thing) a higher handicap player can get even close to what a pro does, less moving parts…..
  
  Reply Report comment
- DJ
  
  Dec 13, 2014 at 9:45 pm
  
  Pros spend more time from 100 and in.
  
  Reply Report comment
- Ken
  
  Dec 14, 2014 at 1:39 am
  
  Maybe top players at local public course with no real practice areas.
  
  Reply Report comment
tom

Dec 13, 2014 at 4:57 am

swing looks great, bright future. just needs to get the ball rolling

Reply Report comment
other paul

Dec 12, 2014 at 7:39 pm

I don’t care for breed, but if he offered a free golf lesson I would take it in a heart beat.

Reply Report comment
Steve

Dec 12, 2014 at 7:30 pm

I like breed, but who cares what he or anyone thinks. Tiger knows more about the golf swing then all of them. Did Ted Williams need a batting coach. He just needs to see the shot hit the shot. Empty his mind of all swing thoughts and play

Reply Report comment
- Merty Huckle
  
  Dec 12, 2014 at 7:32 pm
  
  How do you know what Tiger knows? I’ve heard he actually knew very little before Foley.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Steve
    
    Dec 12, 2014 at 7:48 pm
    
    Serious? And Foley knows more about playing golf then Tiger.
    
    Reply Report comment
  - Knobbywood
    
    Dec 12, 2014 at 7:51 pm
    
    Hank Haney has been w
    Quoted saying tiger woods knows more about the golf swing than anyone else he has ever met…. Pre foley
    
    Reply Report comment
Tom

Dec 12, 2014 at 7:11 pm

Bubba. Fud.

Reply Report comment
- scott
  
  Dec 12, 2014 at 8:01 pm
  
  simmer down there bubba
  
  Reply Report comment
Kyle

Dec 12, 2014 at 6:55 pm

Best player to ever play. So yeah, obviously there will always be hype.

Reply Report comment
Merty Huckle

Dec 12, 2014 at 5:09 pm

I can’t stand Breed. Extremely annoying TV personality.

Reply Report comment
- scott
  
  Dec 12, 2014 at 8:01 pm
  
  I like his show my favorite on golf channel
  
  Reply Report comment
- SB
  
  Dec 13, 2014 at 8:27 am
  
  Merty you are wrong about Breed. I work in the golf industry and had the privilege of meeting him and he was so generous sharing his knowledge on the golf swing, fitting and the business of golf in general.
  
  Jake Anderson, if you really think that top tour pro’s don’t spend more time on short game than their long game, you are quite wrong. Keegan Bradley as an example wakes up, hits the gym and then heads to the range until lunch. After, he spends a few hours hitting short shots and then goes and plays 9 holes. Comes back in and after a little rest, he putts until dark.
  
  The difference between a PGA Tour pro and a mini tour player is the fact that a tour pro can scramble like no ones business. At their level, most guys can hit it a long way. But not all of them can combine that power with touch around the green.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - DR Troy
    
    Dec 13, 2014 at 7:42 pm
    
    SB- 110% spot on with every comment dude…Couldn’t have said it any better..Especially the differences between PGA Tour and Mini Tours..
    
    Reply Report comment
- Marshall Brown
  
  Dec 14, 2014 at 8:12 pm
  
  What? Of all golf TV personalities, you hate Breed? He is easssssssily my favorite, and the favorite of most of the golfers I know
  
  Reply Report comment

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