Tiger Woods' coach saw Rocket Classic win that 'meant more than any major'
Tiger Woods' coach saw Rocket Classic win that 'meant more than any major'
Andrew GambleSun, August 2, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
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Butch Harmon's mentorship helped Rickie Fowler rediscover his winning gene -Credit:Getty Images
Butch Harmon picked Rickie Fowler’s Rocket Classic win as his most meaningful victory over the majors won with Tiger Woods.
Woods is still recovering from his latest controversy, which saw him roll his car in Jupiter Island back in March. The 15-time major champion was later arrested on suspicion of DUI; he passed a breath test but refused to provide a urine sample, and then checked into a rehabilitation center in Switzerland to escape the noise in the U.S.
He returned from an Achilles injury during the second season of TGL, only to crash his car days later. But Woods has battled against issues before and achieved incredible success on his return to top-level golf.
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Not many know more about Woods than Harmon. He coached Woods from 1993 to 2004, beginning when he was a 17-year-old amateur, and the partnership led to 34 PGA Tour events and eight major championships — including the famous "Tiger Slam" across 2000 and 2001.
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Despite achieving so much success with Woods, as well as his history at guiding some of the sport’s all-time greats to major glory, Harmon identified Fowler’s 2023 win that ended his 1,610-day wait for a PGA Tour victory as the most notable. Harmon and Fowler worked together for years before the coach scaled back his travel in 2019.
Fowler struggled for form and results in the following years and was as low as world No. 185 before a return to Harmon's teaching coincided with a sharp upturn in form. The American posted top-20 finishes in 13 of his 16 starts in 2023 before he finally snapped his final-day disappointments by clinching a sixth PGA Tour title with a dramatic play-off victory in Detroit.
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Rickie Fowler's win in Detroit ended his lengthy drought -Credit:Getty Images
For Harmon, the win means so much. Appearing on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Harmon said: “This win for Rickie (Fowler) probably means more to me personally than all the majors that I have had guys win that I've worked with.”
Fowler and Harmon have a long-standing coaching relationship that began in late 2013, revitalized Fowler's career with peak major performances in 2014, and reunited in 2020 to pull the golfer out of a slump and back into the winner's circle. After securing his first victory since the WM Phoenix Open in February 2019, Fowler immediately praised his coach’s input.
“He [Harmon] is the best golf coach out there,” Fowler said in his press conference after winning. “It's more just the communication and talking and going back and him looking at videos, or what he sees on TV or stuff he can sees on TV or on the Tour app or whatever it may be.
“He does a great job with players, taking what they have and ultimately I think making them the best that they can be with who they are, how they swing and making what they do well that much better and bring up the weaknesses.”
Source: “AOL Sports”
