Hank Haney catches major flak for criticism of Rory McIlroy's swing

Swing coach Hank Haney is most famous for being Tiger Woods' swing coach from 2004-2010. He is also infamous for some offensive comments he made several years ago about the LPGA Tour. His most recent controversy involves him criticizing Rory McIlroy's swing.

Hank Haney catches major flak for criticism of Rory McIlroy's swing

Haney made his comments on the social media platform X. You can view his post below:

If you cannot access the post, Haney essentially criticizes Rory for his downward head motion in his golf swing while at the same time acknowledging his greatness as a player. On its face, this is a bit of an odd criticism since the picture he uses is from Rory swinging his driver. Rory McIlroy is widely regarded as the best driver of the golf ball in the entire world.

The replies to Haney's post were mixed, but many were critical of him. Some noted the fact that Rory is a great driver and that he does not have a similar head dip on his iron and wedge shots. Others agreed with Haney and said that the head dip is the reason for his inconsistent wedge play. Several took shots at Haney for ruining Tiger's game or musing how many majors Woods would have won if he had never had Haney as his coach.

Ultimately, Haney's criticism seems a bit misplaced. Take a look at McIlroy's wedge swing in this video. The head dip is much less pronounced there, so it is not clear why Haney points it out as such a negative.

Take a look at Scottie Scheffler's wedge swing as he is probably the best wedge player and ball striker in the world. He has a little bit of head movement in his swing as well.

Haney's criticism really seems to fall flat.

Perhaps this is just another instance of a washed-up, increasingly irrelevant coach trying to stir the pot and create controversy to maintain some sort of relevance. His analysis of Rory certainly seems to be a pretty big miss.