By Torleif Sorenson on 3/12/14

Well-known and highly-respected golf instructor Hank Haney has a bone to pick with Matt Newman of Golf.com — or with one of Newman's editors. Earlier today, an article Newman posted included this headline:

The Big Diss: Haney Says Players Were Never Intimidated By Tiger

The problem is that Haney did not say that. During interviews following a promotional event for TaylorMade's SpeedBlade irons, Newman quoted Haney thusly:

"I didn't buy into that when people talked about it as much as people talked about it. Tiger won because he shot the lowest score, not because he intimidated his opponents.

"Back in the day when you were playing with Tiger, you were playing in the last group. It's hard to play in the last group, no matter who you are playing with. Everyone says, 'Oh, he can't play with Tiger.' It's hard to play on the lead, and that's hard no matter what tournament it is and no matter who's playing."

Haney then cited the Honda Classic from two weekends ago as an example:

"You look how difficult it was for those guys to close that tournament. It had nothing to do with Tiger being there. Nobody was intimidated by anyone. It's hard to play on the lead."

Using the sentences we at ClubSG have re-posted in bold text (above), some editor at Golf.com clearly reached a far-fetched conclusion that Haney never stated — and that Newman does not seem to have implied, either.

To this point, Haney has fired back with two tweets stating the facts for the record:

Media does this all the time, never said that, read the quote @RRavidgolfer:The Big Diss: Haney Says Players Were Never Intimidated By Tiger

— Hank Haney (@HankDHaney) March 12, 2014

It is amazing how editors write headlines that don't match the quotes in the story and then whoever is quoted is credited w the headline

— Hank Haney (@HankDHaney) March 12, 2014

On Tiger's intimidation I said "I didn't buy into it when people talked about it AS MUCH as they talked about it" never said it didn't exist

— Hank Haney (@HankDHaney) March 12, 2014

Haney is correct; some writers and editors quite deliberately twist quotes and comments to fit their predetermined agenda. One attorney and professor who has very helpfully explained how this is done is Bob Kohn, whose 2003 book Journalistic Fraud is a must-read.


read more

Read an interesting golf article? Tip Your Editor!


Image via Twitter

no comments posted yet.