I’ve just finished reading The Big Miss, Hank Haney’s revealing new book on his six years as Tiger Woods’ coach.   I know several people who didn’t like it, dismissed it and accused Haney of betraying Tiger; maybe so, but I couldn’t put it down.

Haney has come under some criticism for writing the book at all, even from fellow coaches Butch Harman and Rick Smith, who suggest PGA Tour swing coaches assume a vow of confidentiality, like a priest or any attorney.

On the other hand, The Big Miss is No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, a rare feat for a golf book.  That’s because it is the most intimate insider-look we are likely to get at one of the most dominant, remarkable figures in the history of sports.  Haney goes where no authorized biography of Tiger is ever going to go.

True, there were several anecdotes and stories that caused me to wince, agreeing that Haney had wandered in to territory that probably should have been off-limits.

To wit: Haney writing about what appeared to him to became a rather distant, cool, relationship with his then-wife, Elin, before the crack-up in his personal life.   Haney also writes that at dinners in the couple’s home, when Tiger would finish, he was up and outtathere.  It’s a small thing, but Haney even recalls one evening, when he and Tiger were watching a ballgame on TV together, when Tiger went to the kitchen and returned with a Popsicle for himself, never offering one to Hank.  That small slight stuck in Haney’s craw for years, seeming to perfectly illustrate Tiger’s self-absorption or narcissism.

The objection that many people, including me, have about Haney including some of those details is that he came by them as a result of being a frequent overnight guest in the Woods’ home.   Compared to the kind of knife-in-the-back recollections we get in the typical Washington or Hollywood tell-all memoirs, Haney’s stories are tame.

Who can blame Tiger for feeling his privacy has been invaded by a man he called a friend.  But let’s be honest: Nothing Haney reveals about Tiger or his marriage is nearly as devastatingly revealing as Tiger’s own self-destructive behavior.

Actually, whether Haney and Tiger were "friends" or not is very much a running theme throughout The Big Miss.  Tiger called Haney a friend, and Haney certainly wanted to be his friend, but in the end, he wonders whether Tiger is even capable of true and deep friendships.

Much of the book details what Haney believes is the impenetrable bubble Tiger has constructed around himself.  Tiger knows everybody, and he is cordial with plenty of people, often referring to them as "friends." But in his time around Tiger, Haney observes little of what he considers genuine friendship.

From Haney’s vantage point, Tiger was never really close to famous athletes like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley.  And when Tiger’s personal life exploded, he even shut out the few guys who thought they were true confidants, like Mark O’Meara and John Cook.  Haney knew he certainly was no intimate confidant.  The only two people Tiger seemed close to were his agent, Mark Steinberg, and a neighborhood high school kid he played practice rounds with at Isleworth, Corey Carroll.

Much of what I liked about the book is that it confirms so many suspicions we all had about Tiger:  That the expectations heaped on him and strain of being Tiger Woods weighed on him much more heavily than he ever let on; that even at his peak, in 2000-2002, Tiger had much more self-doubt than we knew; that despite his protestations to the contrary, Tiger knew exactly what people (and the media) were saying and writing about him; that Tiger can be an aloof, remote, cold-hearted bastard, even to the handful of people seemingly closest to him.

Haney doesn’t knock Tiger off his pedestal The Big Miss – Tiger had already done that to himself.  But Haney does give us plenty of insider information and evidence to show that Tiger was, and is, just another flawed human being, albeit one with nearly superhuman ability and determination.

As Haney has pointed out time and again, most of the book is quite positive about Tiger.  Haney regards Tiger as the greatest player who ever lived, even if he doesn’t break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors.  Haney is flat-out in awe of Tiger.  He finally just decided that the pressure of being Tiger’s coach and the indignities of dealing with his mood swings, was sucking the life out of him.

When it comes to the history of golf in Philadelphia, I humbly bow to two men.  On the amateur side, it’s James W. Finegan, author of the authoritative tome A Centennial Tribute to Golf in Philadelphia, for the Golf Association of Philadelphia.

On the pro side, the undisputed authority is Pete Trenham, who spent 29 years as the head professional at St. David’s Golf Club.

Quite the stick in his day (former captain of the University of Florida golf team), Pete got involved in Section politics and worked his way up through the ranks of the Philadelphia Section PGA, becoming the 27^th president in 1987.  When the Section created a Hall of Fame in 1992, he was an original inductee.

Along the way, Pete indulged his fascination with the history of golf in Philadelphia and over time, he became the Section’s official historian. Pete researched and wrote all of those vignettes that ran on the home page of MyPhillyGolf in 2011 commemorating the 90^th anniversary of the Section.

Pete does this stuff not for money but because, well, it is his passion and he has the time and energy to do it.

Now comes his latest labor of love, the culmination of his work, a website he has launched with the help of a couple of enthusiastic and computer-savvy buddies, Bill Orr  and Jack Darcy.

The website, Trenham Golf History, is now up and running; that said, it is a work-in-progress.  Pete, Bill and Jack plan to add more and more stuff – documents, blueprints, videos, anything that people might find interesting.

For now, the strength of the site is the history of the PGA Section and its many professionals.  But when we had lunch at St. David’s recently, Pete, Bill and Jack were all interested in growing and expanding their archives in all directions of golf history.

Welcome and good luck to the latest golf resource in town, Trenham Golf History.

Just when it seemed the storm clouds over golf couldn’t get much darker, Jack Nicklaus laid a factoid on us last week that is truly alarming:

Of Nicklaus’s 22 grandkids, only one, 9-year-old G.T., son of Gary Nicklaus, has more than a passing interest in the game.

If the greatest golfer of all time, whose grandkids presumably enjoy every advantage and opportunity to get dawn into the game, aren’t hooked, what is the future of golf?

I heard this discouraging bit of information from Nicklaus himself last week at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, sitting in on a roundtable discussion on the PGA of America’s latest initiative, Golf 2.0.

PGA president Allen Wronowski began the session with an upbeat but less than convincing opening remarks on why Golf 2.0 will be any more effective than earlier well-meaning but largely failed programs.

Then, Wronowski turned the microphone over to Nicklaus, who cited his own family to paint just how bleak the picture is.  Here’s a little of what Nicklaus said:

We've lost 23 percent of the women in the game since 2006 and we have lost 36 percent of the kids in the game since 2006.  That's not a good stat.

     Now, it's not something that we are proud of.  When we finally kept looking at this thing and saying, we need to do something, The PGA of America with their 2.0 program, it's the most comprehensive and complete and well‑thought‑out program and I think it's something to get behind. That's what I'm here to try to help do.

You know, this relates to my own family.  I had three of my kids that became golf professionals.  They stopped playing to golf, all three of them have got their amateur status back.  Steve is not a pro but he's a pretty good player and he doesn't play much anymore.  I play about once a month.  My wife doesn't really play.

The grand kids ‑‑ I've got 22 grand kids, and I've got ‑‑ they all play a little bit, but I mean, a little bit ‑‑  it's really a little bit, they play less than I do, and that's not very much.

Other sports are grabbing attention and time from our kids.  The parents are being dragged to the parks and the park systems and they are playing soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball, basketball, you name it.  And they don't have the time to play golf and the kids are not being introduced to it and that's exactly what you were just saying.

Nicklaus’ sons don’t play much.  For crying out loud, Nicklaus himself only plays once a month.  He’d rather fish -- or hang with his posse, I suppose.  Or design golf courses that are too hard for 95 percent of today’s average golfers.

If you want to read more about Golf 2.0, click here or here.

Not to make too much of the Q&A video with fans that Tiger Woods has posted on his official website, but I don’t think it’s good news for golf or for golf fans.

Never mind that the 15-minute, 19-question video is b-o-r-i-n-g. More concerning, it is further evidence of a growing chill between Tiger and the media and his desire insulate to himself from nosey scribes with pesky, embarrassing questions.

A little background.  At most tournaments -- all majors and anywhere he is defending champion -- Tiger goes to the media center for a 30-minute pre-tournament sit-down with the assembled media.

Lord knows those interviews can be boring, too, often full of softball questions or rambling non-answers from Tiger.  Tiger, after all, has never been one to spill his guts about anything.  In fact, if you read Hank Haney’s book, The Big Miss, Haney confirms that Tiger derives much mystique and power over other opponents by revealing nothing, letting no one inside his head.

But since his personal life crack-up, Tiger’s cordial but arm’s-length relationship with the media has deteriorated to the point of open hostility.  Monday, at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, Tiger declined to do the usual press conference and instead posted a video on his website of himself answering fan questions.

What’s wrong with that?  Nothing, per se.  I have read a few blogs by people who think the media is getting its comeuppance and deserves the stiff-arm from Tiger.  I won’t argue that point one way or the other.

What I will argue is that if this is what we are going to get from Tiger from now on, he might as well go into exile.  Did you get a load of the questions he hand-picked to answer on the video? 

-- What have you been working on since the Masters?

-- Which is your favorite trophy of the four majors?

Bottom line, if Tiger adopts a new communications policy of going straight to the fans, avoiding the media whenever possible, allowing only softball questions to penetrate his personal space, no nobody benefits. 

Tiger might think he does, but he doesn’t.  What’s good for golf and good for Tiger is him being compelling.  That fan video he posted is not compelling.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

I’m a little embarrassed that it took a column by Jim Nugent at GlobalGolfPost to make me sit up and say, "Good point: Why isn’t Jay Sigel in the World Golf Hall of Fame?

What makes it even more embarrassing is that I vote every year on who gets picked for the Hall.

Until Nugent pointed it out, however, I hadn’t given much thought to the fact in my time as a voter, no amateur’s name has ever made it onto the ballot.  That is determined by strictly pro credentials: At least 10 years on the PGA Tour, two major titles or 10 PGA Tour wins.

Of course, in this day and age, who remains an amateur long enough to deserve consideration for the Hall?  With so much money to be made on the PGA Tour, any amateur with a fighting chance turns pro and chases the pot of gold at the end of the golfing rainbow.

Come to think of it, the last truly good amateur I can recall not making the leap to the pros was Texan Trip Kuehne, who lost to Tiger Woods in the finals of the U.S. Amateur in 1994.   Kuehne thought he had a better chance of making it as a investment banker, and he has.  Although he is still active and competitive, Kuehne’s amateur career pales in comparison to Jay’s.

Kuehne and Jay were the last of a dying breed: career amateurs. As we all know, by the time Jay turned pro at 50, he had fashioned an amateur record that ranks him alongside Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods.   Only after his amateur legacy was firmly in place did Jay decide to measure his game against the pros on the Champions Tour.  Eight wins and $8.6 million later, it’s starting to look like a good idea.

But make no mistake, it’s Jay’s career as an amateur for which he will be remembered and for which he belongs in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

For a couple of days there, I was following the latest chapter of Steve Williams Is A Dumbass, shaking my head over how golf had managed to embarrass itself once again. Or how he had managed to embarrass golf.

Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, the Penn State Scandal erupted.  It makes you realize just how tame golf’s blunders are by comparison.  And thankfully so.