Woods' world shaken further by Haney decision

TV analyst Johnny Miller should be happy to learn swing coach Hank Haney has resigned as Tiger Woods' coach. Haney made his decision known in a statement to the Golf Channel last night.

Miller had suggested that Woods' swing was out of whack because of his relationship with Haney and that the world's No. 1-ranked player would be better off returning to some of his old swing habits learned while under the tutelage of swing coach Butch Harmon. Woods had shrugged off the notion during The Players Championship last weekend, but apparently Haney had grown tired of the criticism and constant focus that troubles with Woods' swing brought him.

"I have informed Tiger Woods this evening that I will no longer be his coach," Haney said in his statement. "I would like to thank Tiger for the opportunity that I have had to work with him over the past six-plus years. Tiger Woods has done the work to achieve a level of greatness that I believe the game of golf has never seen before and I will always appreciate the opportunity I have had to contribute to his success.

"However, I believe at this time that it is in both our interests for me to step aside as Tiger's coach. Just so there is no confusion, I would like to make it clear that this is my decision. Tiger and I will always be friends but I believe there is a time and place for everything and I feel at this time and at this place in my life I want to move forward in other areas."

Haney's decision probably caught Woods off guard. During a news conference yesterday at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa., to promote his July 1-4 AT&T National in suburban Philadelphia, Woods said that he was working on his swing.

"I talked to Hank about some of the stuff. We're still working on it," he said. "We have a lot of work to do. I can't make the movements that I made before because of the neck. I need to get healthy to play the proper way."

Woods withdrew from The Players Championship in the middle of the final round on Sunday after completing six holes, citing a neck injury.

Woods said in yesterday's news conference there is "zero connection" between the neck pain that forced him to withdraw from The Players and his Nov. 27 car accident. He also added that his neck started bothering him two weeks before the Masters, his first competition in five months. Woods brushed it off as "no big deal" until it kept getting worse.

"I'm at a point now where I just can't go anymore," he said. "I want to practice, I want to play, I want to compete, but this is not allowing me to do the things that I need to do on my golf swing to hit the proper shots. I need to get to where I can do that again."

Woods said he's been taking anti-inflammatory drugs, but they have not helped. He plans to have a magnetic resonance imaging when he returns to Orlando, Fla. He indicated that his schedule is "up in the air" and could be shaped based on what the MRI reveals.

In November, Woods was briefly hospitalized after he crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and a tree outside his home, resulting in a sore neck and a cut lip. Yesterday, Woods insisted he can deal with the pain, which he feels in the right side of his neck, but cannot deal with the spasms that affect his ability to turn his head.

"For me not to play all 18 holes, that was as angry and as frustrated as I've been in a long time," Woods said of withdrawing from The Players. It was Woods' first withdrawal from a tournament since the Nissan Open at Riviera in 2006.

Woods said he never reached a point until this weekend where he felt he needed more serious treatment on his neck to alleviate the pain.

"It's possible one of the reasons I think this thing flared up is because I wasn't conditioned to it," he said. "I'd been away from the game for such a long time, then came back and ramped up really quickly in order to try and play the Masters. The body wasn't quite ready for that."

After tying for fourth in the Masters, Woods looked lost on the course as he missed the cut at Quail Hollow on April 30 with the highest 36-hole score of his career.

He was noncommittal about playing the U.S. Open on June 17-20.

"I'm trying everything I can to get back as soon as I can," Woods said.

Whenever that is, it apparently will be without Haney.

Information from ESPN.com, PGATOUR.com, and the Associated Press contributed to this post.