Tiger’s swing under scrutiny after Turnberry

TURNBERRY, Scotland, (Reuters) – Tiger Woods’s  premature exit from the British Open, where he was bidding to  lift the Claret Jug for a fourth time, raised immediate  questions about his progress since returning from knee surgery.

The American world number one was sidelined for eight months  after winning last year’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and has  failed to add to his grand slam tally in three attempts this  season.

He tied for sixth at both the U.S. Masters and last month’s  U.S. Open before missing the cut at Turnberry last week by a  stroke.

However Woods has raised expectations to such a high level  that the post-mortems began well before he boarded his plane to  fly back to his home in Orlando, Florida.

Former European Ryder Cup captain Mark James suggested the  14-times major champion should consider changing his swing coach  Hank Haney, despite having won three times in 10 PGA Tour starts  this season.

“He will be thinking all the way home about his swing and  what he needs to do next,” James told the BBC. “He will be  wondering whether to continue working on what he has been  working on, or whether to ask advice from somewhere else.

“It’s difficult when you are used to working with one coach  like he is with Hank but I think maybe they have got to take a  slightly different direction.

“In my opinion there is too much movement of the head. It  goes down a lot at the start of the downswing, and up at impact,  which is too soon.”

American Mark O’Meara, a double major champion and Woods’s  long-time friend and mentor, disagreed.