Brandel Chamblee on Tiger Woods' Swing Change in the Early 2000s: “The Craziest Thing in the History of Sport”

Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots. Three years later, he won the U.S. Open by 15. And just over a month later won the Open by eight.

Oh, and completed the “Tiger Slam” in April 2001.

But even after all that ridiculous success, Tiger still changed his swing in an effort to get better. On this week’s Dan On Golf, Brandel Chamblee called it, “the craziest thing in the history of sport.”

“Early on in my TV career, people would call me a Tiger critic. When I started doing TV, it was in 2004. Now think about what had happened in 2004. Tiger Woods had just won four majors in a row, THE PLAYERS, and the Canadian Open. All in the span of a year. He was in the middle of making 142 cuts in a row, and he was winning by 12, and 15, and eight shots at these major championships. And he changed that golf swing."

Tiger Woods. Masters 2001. (Photo: Getty Images)

“So I am now sitting down for the first time ever at a desk as an analyst and the first question I get is, ‘Why would he change that golf swing?’ It’s the craziest thing in the history of sport, what Tiger Woods did. Absolute, without question, there’s nothing that comes close in the history of sport.

“This would be like Steph Curry deciding to change the way he shoots three-pointers.”

But my favorite part of Chamblee’s spiel is this nugget: “Hank Haney was telling Tiger Woods how to to play golf, and Hank Haney has the driver yips, can’t hit a range.”

Just peak Chamblee on this week’s episode of DOG.

Also on the show is Viktor Hovland fresh off his win at the Valspar Championship, Alan Shipnuk stops by to give out some grades before the major season kicks off, Rick Gehman returns to give out some picks for the Houston Open, plus a whole lot more.

You can listen to Dan On Golf wherever you get your podcasts or on the Dan On Golf YouTube channel.