Columnist Dean Juipe: Swing coach value may be only a myth

Dean Juipe

Monday, July 22, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

It's a specialized job, to be sure.

But like a trainer in boxing, a swing coach in golf doesn't seem like a job at all. You put out a shingle, "Swing Coach -- Students Wanted" and wait for the applicants to beat down the door.

There's no test to pass, no degree to earn, no minimal qualifications whatsoever. You merely say you can do it, figuratively casting your line into the water while waiting for the fish to bite.

It's a lure that's effective, as every course has a teaching pro and most professional golfers have a full-time coach who's constantly on call if not traveling with the player.

But when everything is said and done, it's the athlete and not the coach who does all the work.

More to the point, if the coach was the one with all the talent he'd be the one competing for the prize money instead of being the guy on the sideline who merely acts as if he knows what he's doing.

At the risk of sounding far too jealous of those in this calling, I, once again, found myself contemplating the value of a traveling swing coach while watching Tiger Woods unravel during the third round of the British Open. Where was Butch Harmon then?

Harmon, who lives and operates out of Las Vegas, is the most renowned of a select group of men who serve as swing coaches to the finest players in the world. He has been with Woods since the latter was 18 years old and attending Stanford in 1993.

Harmon gets a lot of mileage out of his association with Woods. He's feted at banquets, applauded at corporate outings and occasionally asked to write a daily column during major events, as he did this past week for USA Today.

I'm sure he knows every intricate detail of a perfect golf swing. But I'm not so sure Woods, or anyone else who plays at that level, needs a swing coach on a companion-like basis.

Harmon regularly travels with Woods to about a dozen events a year, and, we can safely assume, is paid handsomely to do it. He also has a few other clients, including a budding star in former UNLV standout Adam Scott.

Yet Harmon, even if he never drinks at all, sometimes comes across as a professional drinking buddy. In one column last week he joked about Miguel Angel Jimenez's new hairdo and, later, offered the opinion that Tiger "is in total control of his game" as the event was about to begin.

Hey, I could have surmised that much from way over here.

To me, a swing coach might come in handy for the average player who is either dissatisfied with his or her game and has a realistic shot of taking a couple of strokes off his score. A coach might also be of value for a high-end player who needs to fine tune his game, as would be the case intermittently with the typical professional.

But, for those inclined to take a swing coach on the road with them, I'd ask: Are you sure you're not just substituting him for an analyst or a pal? After all, Woods knows how to play the game better than anyone -- including Sunday's Open winner, Ernie Els -- so what beyond a reassuring remark or a soothing pat on the back could Harmon have offered him after his rain-soaked 81?

There's a temptation here. I can golf a bit and I took some Psych courses in college.

Can I be a swing coach, too?