Butch Harmon is stepping away from the world of tour golf. The teacher is generally renowned as being the best in the business but, at 75, he is shutting things down a bit.
“I told my guys that I wasn’t going to go out on tour anymore but if they wanted my help they can always come here (to Vegas),” Harmon said. “The only event I will now travel to is The Masters because I will do the Sky Sports broadcast and that will be the only television I do.
“In all honesty, it was just time; 35 years of traveling the tour has been a long grind and I was tired of the whole thing. The travel, the hotels, the restaurants, the pressure of it wore me out. It’s time for me to start enjoying my life.”
His son Claude will take over some of his work, with the likes of Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, and he will still be on the end of the phone to pass on his wisdom.
Here we touch on his remarkable career..
The incredible career of Butch Harmon
1. What does his CV like?
How about this – Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Stewart Cink, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Darren Clarke, Justin Leonard, Nick Watney, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker, Gary Woodland, Brandt Snedeker, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Natalie Gulbis, Danielle Kang and, most recently, Ollie Schniederjans.
Oh, and King Hassan II in Morocco.
2. It’s in the genes
And how about this for a golfing dynasty – his dad Claude Harmon Sr won The Masters in 1948. He was the head pro at Winged Foot and, in the winter, Seminole and he had four sons Butch, Dick, Billy and Craig.
Dick, who died in 2006, was the head pro at River Oaks and taught Craig Stadler, Lanny Wadkins, Jay Haas, Fred Couples, Steve Elkington and Lucas Glover. Craig was the head pro at Oak Hill while Billy has worked with Bill Haas and worked as an instructor on the Golf Channel.
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Butch’s son Claude Harmon III has taken over the reins on DJ and Rickie Fowler as well as also teaching Brooks Koepka.
3. What was he like as a player?
Playing wise Butch played in one major, the 1970 US Open at Hazeltine where Tony Jacklin won by seven.
He turned pro in 1965 and went through various qualifying schools to play the pro tour and won once, the Broome County Open, which was a one-round satellite tournament before it became a PGA Tour event two years later. The victory came after a five-hole play-off.
“My ball-striking was pretty good. My short game is much better now. And temperament is a thousand times better now. I thought I had to hit every shot perfect, and it kept me from being a better player. But being a perfectionist has made me a better teacher.”
4. How much for a lesson with Butch?
He charged $20 for a half-hour lesson in 1966, the year after he got out of Vietnam.
In 2017 he told Golf Digest that a lesson with Butch would set you back $1500 whether you are an amateur off the street or a tour pro.
In the future he’ll still teach from Vegas where any player can fly in for some time with him and he’ll continue with the golf schools and young pros and college players.
On the next page we learn more about Butch’s workings with Tiger and Phil and what his favourite courses are…
5. Butch and Greg (and Seve)
Butch and Norman got together after the Aussie lost his World No. 1 ranking to Faldo in 1991 and the pair got to work on Norman’s sliding hips and that big block.
Norman got back his No. 1 spot, won The Open at Sandwich in 1993 and The Players the following year with a winning score of 24 under.
Harmon also spent some time working with Seve in 1995 when he went to his house in Spain for a couple of weeks. Ballesteros had become so bogged down in technical thoughts that Harmon eventually resorted to standing 30 yards ahead of the maestro and called the shots that he wanted Seve to hit.
“I swear the caddie didn’t have to take two steps left or right to retrieve those balls. See it, hit it.”
6. His biggest students
His son Claude Harmon tells a good story in Golf Digest of the family keeping ‘The Video’ on a VHS tape, dated August 23 1993. On it is a 17-year-old Tiger having his first lesson with Butch in Texas after he had lost in the quarter-finals of the US Amateur.
With Harmon as his coach, Woods won the U.S. Amateur three times and eight majors as a pro, highlighted by five of six in one stretch in 2000-01.
They parted ways in August 2002 though they continued to work together by phone up until the middle of 2003.
Harmon got together with Mickelson and they teamed up for eight years which coincided with an almost win at The Players followed by a third Green Jacket and the Open triumph at Muirfield. The pair became close friends and parted on better terms than his split with Woods – Mickelson flew to Vegas to do it in person, they had a hug and wished each other all the best for the future.
7. It’s all in the eyes
His son Claude explains that Harmon doesn’t rely on Trackman, preferring instead to use his eyes.
“He’s no technophobe; he was one of the very first, along with Carl Welty, to use video. My dad’s eyes perform for him what TrackMan performs for everyone else. Beyond the precision of what he sees with ball flight, club and body movements, he has a genius for addressing the root of any swing problem. It’s especially true at the highest competitive level, where the adjustments are very small. Bottom line, my dad is as great at teaching as Tiger was at playing.
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8. How does he relax?
His luxuries are watches, cars and red wine. At the last count he had about 30 watches at home but then he got a deal with Rolex which slowed down his buying.
As for the wine he says ‘I don’t buy wine to keep; I buy to drink. Having said that, I do have around 280 bottles in my cellar at home.’
He has a holiday home up in the mountains in Utah.
9 Where does Butch like to play?
Unsurprisingly Winged Foot, where his dad was the pro for 35 years, would sit top of the pile, followed by Pine Valley, Seminole, San Francisco and Sand Hills in Nebraska.
Away from the States he’s partial to Royal County Down and the Old Course. And finally Walton Heath.
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