Butch Harmon, Tiger Woods’ famed ex-coach, admitted that instructing Greg Norman taught him more about himself than the 15-time major champion.
Harmon made the remark and possibly accidental dig at Woods during an interview with Iona Stephen on an episode of “On the Road with Iona”.
She asked the 80-year-old instructor which of his students had shared the most about themselves.
The question completely stumped Harmon.
Harmon has trained players including as Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Davis Love III, Justin Leonard, Nick Watney, Gary Woodland, Jimmy Walker, Darren Clarke, Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, and Danielle Kang.
Most recently, world number three Rory McIlroy sought coaching after developing a left miss with his short irons.
Of course, Harmon worked with ‘prime’ Norman, who is now the LIV Golf commissioner.
“Probably Greg,” Harmon said Stephen in response to her inquiry.
He described The Great White Shark as one of the ‘best players’ the game has ever seen.
Harmon went on to say, “He won’t get credit for it because he only won two majors and the disaster that he or someone else caused against him in majors.”
“This guy has won over 80 tournaments around the world.” He was the best golf ball driver I had ever seen with a wooden driver.
“But since he had so many other enterprises — his wine business, his sod business, his this business — if we only had two or three hours to work, if I went to Florida and stayed with him at his house before coming to Medalist to work, it was all business.
“And he improved the way I did my job when I had four, five, and six players. He taught me how to budget my time so that I’m fully invested, especially when you only have so much time with each player.
“And so Greg really made me better at my job than I think I was before that, just because I learned from him on how he budgeted his time and everything he did.”
According to Harmon, Norman was the best with a persimmon driver and possessed an unparalleled short game.
“It’s too bad he doesn’t get the credit he deserves because, God, he was good,” said the man.
“No one could drive a ball with a persimmon driver like he did. He could set it at 300 yards on either side of the fairway he chose. People don’t realize how good his short game was.
“But being with him taught me more about myself, and he helped to develop that in me.
“I learned it from him and that helped me tremendously the rest of my career.”
Harmon’s remarks came in the same week that the PGA Tour and Norman’s Saudi-backed breakaway were alleged to have ‘exchanged terms’ on a peace pact.
If a deal is reached in which Saudi Arabia’s PIF invests in PGA Tour Enterprises, some of Norman’s LIV golfers might return to the North American tour very soon, following nearly two years of extraordinary turmoil in men’s golf.