Michael Phelps: Out of the Pool and Onto the Course

The guy with a lot of potential is athletic, long and in search of his golf ball.

–Hank Haney

SWIMMING SUPERSTAR MICHAEL PHELPS, WINNER OF 22 Olympic medals, now wants to play the world’s greatest golf courses and improve his golf game. The Golf Channel’s Hank Haney is set to help Phelps shape up his game.

Michael Phelps (McCain)

In its fifth season, beginning in February, “The Haney Project” will chronicle Phelps’s efforts to improve his game from tee to green with the guidance of the famous swing coach and author of The Big Miss.

“As I enter this next chapter of my life,” Phelps said, “I think I will be able to shift my competitiveness to anything I put my mind to and golf is one of the things I want to focus on.

“If I have a goal of dropping a certain amount of shots, or working on my short game or putting, those things are going to keep me motivated and fire me up and keep me excited. I want to play all the world’s great golf courses, but I’d like to play them well. I’m excited about this project with Golf Channel and I’m looking forward to working with Hank and see what we can do together on the golf course.”

“He wants to win his club championship,” Haney told the Associated Press. “He wants to play golf so bad. He’ll be all right. It will take him a little while, but he should improve really fast. Michael has got such long arms. But it’s funny, because whenever anyone makes a comment that a guy has got a lot of potential, they’re always talking about one thing—he hits it a long way. The translation is he hits it everywhere.”

Haney is looking forward to the challenge, and is especially excited that Phelps is retired so “he’s going to practice a lot.”

My one tip to Phelps, the golfer: Stay out of the water.