Woods resolves to keep fighting as coach quits

Tiger Woods' long-time swing coach Hank Haney has ended his relationship with the troubled golf star.

The pair’s partnership has come under scrutiny as Woods has struggled with his swing since returning from his self-imposed absence, with some suggesting he should abandon Haney’s principles.

Haney, who has been with Woods for six years, said in a statenment posted on his website last night Haney said: "I have informed Tiger Woods this evening that I will no longer be his coach."

"I wish Tiger well, not only with his golf, but in finding peace and happiness in all aspects of his life. Tiger knows that if he ever needs me in anyway, whether it be with his golf or just as a friend he can always call."

Haney's resignation follows Woods' withdrawal from the Players' Championship on Sunday due to a neck inury.

Missing the cut by eight shots two weeks ago and then struggling to 51st place before he retired at the weekend with 11 holes to go has led to people wondering how much of an impact his sex scandal was having on his career, as well as his private life.

However Woods insisted he would prove his critics wrong and bounce back.

“I’ve dealt with other things in my life where people said that I was pretty much done and come back,” said the world number one.

“So the whole idea is just to keep fighting every day. It’s all I can do.”

But Woods, whose wife Elin is now thought to be seeking a divorce, turned the attention onto his physical state by retiring from golf’s richest event.

Nobody watching at the time saw anything alarming, but Woods said yesterday: “Once it locked up I couldn’t actually turn going back and I couldn’t turn coming through.

“For me not to play all 18 holes, that was as angry and as frustrated as I’ve been in a long time.

“I’ll have an MRI on it and see exactly what’s going on, why it’s behaving the way it’s behaving.

“It actually started bugging me two weeks before the Masters (just as he resumed serious practice) and it was just on and off.

“I thought it was just sore and no big deal, but as I kept playing and kept practising it never got better. It actually was getting worse.

“Now I’m at a point where I just can’t go any more.”

Asked if he was struggling mentally as well, he added: “It’s certainly not where I would like to have it, there’s no doubt.

“There’s a lot of things going on in my life right now. I’m just trying to get everything in a harmonious spot and that’s not easy to do.

“I’m also trying to make life changes as well and trying to do that under the microscope of everyone asking me and watching everything I do doesn’t make it easy.

“But I have just so many great friends and peers that have gone through things that I am going through and battling. That helps to be able to talk with them and share my feelings with them.”

As for his return to the game, Woods, who was speaking from the course in Pennsylvania where July’s AT&T National will take place, stated: “A lot is up in the air still, which I don’t like.

“I still need to go home and get a picture on this and see what’s going on.

“I’ll want to come back and obviously defend at Memorial and play the US Open (they are in the first and third weeks of next month), but I’ll have a lot more answers after I get the picture.”