Hank Haney is one of the most well-respected and sought-after golf instructors in the world today. He is famous for rebuilding the swing of the world's #1 player, who has gone on to win six more Majors and counting. Haney has also worked with hundreds of top pros, including Masters and British Open champion Mark O'Meara, who attributes the durability and dependability of his swing to Haney and says that "Hank knows more about ball flight and what controls it than anyone in the game." In this book, Haney goes beyond tips and quick fixes to lay out the principles behind the perfect swing. Point by point, chapters cover every aspect of the swing, from grip to contact to ball flight, with 160 illustrations to help players understand the concepts and check their form. Putting Haney's approach into practice enables players to make the powerful, repeating swing that can hit every kind and shape of shot--with every club in the bag--with equal ease on a consistent basis. A master work from a master instructor, Essentials of the Swing will be essential reading for any golfer who is looking to reach the height of his or her game. Hank Haney (Westlake, TX) is #3 on Golf Digest's list of America's 50 greatest golf teachers. He's the Director of Instruction at the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy and the founder of Hank Haney Golf, Inc., which operates golf programs nationwide. He's the author of three previous books: The Only Golf Lesson You'll Ever Need (978-0-06-270237-1), No More Bad Shots (978-1-892129-97-0), and Fix the Yips Forever (978-1-59240-236-6).

In March 2004, Hank Haney received a call from Tiger Woods in which the golf champion asked Haney to be his coach. It was a call that would change both men’s lives. Tiger – only 28 at the time – was by then already an icon, judged by the sporting press as not only one of the best golfers ever, but possibly the best athlete ever. But Tiger was always looking to improve, and he wanted Hank’s help. Over the next six years of working together, the supremely gifted Woods collected six major championships and rewrote golf history. Hank was one of the very few people allowed behind the curtain. Always haunting Tiger was his fear of ‘the big miss’ – the wildly inaccurate golf shot that can ruin an otherwise solid round – and it was because that type of blunder was sometimes part of Tiger’s game that Hank carefully redesigned his swing mechanics. Towards the end of their time together, the champion’s laser-like focus began to blur and he became less willing to put in punishing hours practicing. Hints that Tiger hungered to reinvent himself were present in his bizarre infatuation with elite military training, and – in a development Hank didn’t see coming – in the scandal that would make headlines in late 2009. It all added up to a big miss that Hank, try as he might, couldn’t save Tiger from. There’s never been a book about Tiger Woods that is as intimate and revealing – or one so wise about what it takes to coach a superstar athlete.

The professional relationship between Hank Haney and Tiger Woods began in March 2004, when the multiple major winner asked Haney to be his coach. 'The Big Miss' is Haney's candid and unsurprisingly insightful account of his tumultuous six-year journey with one of the world's greatest sportsmen.