I Feel Better About My Golf Game Now...

...that I've seen how bad Charles Barkley's swing is.

The Golf Channel aired its new reality show, The Haney Project, last night. Hank Haney is considered to be the one of the best professional teachers of the golf game right now, probably due in no small part to the fact that his number one student is a fella by the name of Eldrich Woods. Tiger will one day set a new record for number of Majors won; I have no doubt he will surpass Nicklaus's mark of 18, so long as he stays healthy and maintains his passion for the game.

Anyway, Hank has taken on Charles Barkley, of NBA fame, as his latest Padawan. For those of you that don't know, Barkley is quite a character, in both good and bad ways. During his pro-basketball career, he was caught at least once spitting on sideline hecklers. One of his more famous commercials was when he stared into the camera and said, quite seriously, "I am not a role model."

Maybe he's not a role model--okay, he's definitely not--but that doesn't mean the guy isn't fun to watch. He is notorious for having an atrocious golf swing. It has more planes in it than Philly International, and he has a habit of stopping the club once, twice, sometimes three times on the downswing before he strikes the golf ball.

I remember reading a story awhile back that Tiger called him the day after a pro-am finished. Tiger joked that he was about to congratulate Sir Charles on winning the tournament, but he realized he was holding the newspaper upside-down while looking at the scores. See, even Tiger Woods has a sense of humor.

I don't usually care for celebreality television shows, but I think I'm going to tune in to this one. Barkley doesn't hold anything back, so this show has a good chance of being truly "reality" TV. And even though I've only played a handful of times in the last two years, I am still fanatical about the game of golf.

Fellow Philadelphians take note too! The guy doing the voiceover work for The Haney Project is none other than Preston Elliott, of the Preston & Steve Show on 93.3 WMMR.