He is the best known golf coach in the world. He is Claude “Butch” Harmon Jr., and he gained his greatest fame as the coach of Tiger Woods from 1993 to 2004.
Before he took on Woods as a pupil, Harmon coached another of golf’s all-time greats, Greg Norman. A few years after parting ways with Woods, he began coaching Phil Mickelson. Other star students have included Ernie Els, Stewart Cink, Davis Love III, Fred Couples and Justin Leonard.
Most recently, he celebrated with 2016 PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker as Walker’s “unofficial” coach.
As Walker explained on the Charlie Rose interview program last night, Harmon has official working agreements with a number of PGA Tour players. The details of those agreements seldom are made public because they can vary widely from player to player.
Walker said that he had worked out with Harmon a few times in recent months. After each lesson, Walker would ask Harmon what he owed him, and each time Harmon declined to accept a payment.
But after winning his first career major on Sunday, Walker knew he had to come up with some way of reciprocating. He said that he knew Harmon was a wine lover — he has his own label, in fact — so Walker would come up with a special bottle to give to his unofficial coach.
Rose suggested Chateau Margaux, but Walker did not reveal the maker of or type of wine he had in mind.
The conversation served as a reminder that not only does wine make a perfect special occasion beverage — for birthdays, weddings and anniversaries — but it’s also a great way of simply saying, “Thank you.”
