Chuck Cook is one of Texas’ many fine golf teachers, and he runs the Chuck Cook Golf Academy at the Barton Creek Resort in Austin. Mr. Cook has trained under several notable teaching professionals, including Bob Toski, Jim Flick, Peter Kostis, Davis Love Jr., Paul Runyan and Jack Lumpkin, has authored two books, “Perfectly Balanced Golf” and “Tips from the Tour“, as well as the video “How to Stop your Slice and your Hook.” Mr. Cook’s students have included three U.S. Open champions, the late Payne Stewart, Tom Kite and Corey Pavin.
In this NY Sunday Times article, Mr. Cook provides an insightful account of how the golf swing needs to be adapted to each player’s attributes, and how this process sometimes breaks down based on the respective natures of the teacher and the student. First, Mr. Cook notes the two different types of golf instructors:

In golf, as in all sports, there are two styles of teachers, method and matchup.
A method instructor teaches a particular style of swing or play and tries to mold all of his players into that style. A matchup teacher takes his players’ natural tendencies and matches up a set of compatible fundamentals to best use those tendencies.
Two basketball coaches illustrate this difference. Bob Knight, the controversial but competent coach who won three N.C.A.A. championships at Indiana, is a method coach. He made every team play the same style of tenacious man-to-man defense and motion offense. Consequently, Knight would recruit players who fit that style of play.
Dean Smith, Knight’s counterpart at North Carolina, was more of a matchup coach. He would recruit the best players available and adjust his style to suit them. He used a formula based on points scored per possession. If he had a good offensive team, he would play a more up-tempo style, and if he had a good defensive team, he would use a more deliberate style of play.

Then, Mr. Cook points out the peculiar nature of golf–the students pick the coaches rather than the process in most sports in which the coaches pick the students:

In golf, however, teachers don’t recruit players; players recruit teachers. This is where it gets dicey. No method fits all players. Swing styles must fit a player physically and psychologically. To name two of many examples, tall players must swing differently than short players, and aggressive players have different needs than conservative players.

Thus, Mr. Cook points out that not all golfers pick the right teacher for them:

Certain types of players succeed with teachers whose method is compatible. The problem is that most method teachers think their approach is superior for all players. To compound the problem, most top players think they can adapt to any method.
Bad things happen when a headstrong player tries to adapt to an incompatible style.

And, in Mr. Cook’s view, that is precisely what has happened to Tiger Woods, who last week lost the No. 1 World Golf ranking for the first time in more than five years:

The style of swing [Woods] had when he came on tour was good for producing distance but not accuracy. The adjustments he made working with Butch Harmon – to his great benefit – were meant to improve accuracy and enhance control of distance rather than producing distance.
Woods is without question the most talented person to play the game, and at his peak no one has played at a higher level. Once a golfer reaches this level, there is little room to improve. One or two things may help, but hundreds of things can hurt.
Woods is the most aggressive player in pursuit of perfection. He continually tinkers with his game. But he has adopted a style of swing that is not compatible to his tendencies. His new teachers are convinced that this style is superior, and Woods is convinced he can adapt to it. It is a conundrum of considerable proportions.
With his new swing, Woods rotates his arms so much on the backswing that it requires a corresponding “rerolling” on the downswing. But his strength is the speed of his body. To accommodate this rolling and rerolling of the arms, the body must be very quiet, which is not instinctive for Woods.
In addition, golf requires that you swing on a plane that is a blend of uprightness and flatness. Most top players (including Woods when he was coached by Harmon) swing their arms up and turn their body, creating this blend. Woods, though, has gone the other way. The rolling of his arms go around; consequently, his shoulders have to tilt to get the needed “up” in his swing. This tilting, instead of turning, requires Woods to pull up through impact, causing his arms to swing to the right of the target and creating wild shots to the right.

Mr. Cook concludes by observing that sometimes swing adjustments help a player and sometimes they hurt:

There are many players who improved thanks to compatible instruction. Nick Faldo, Curtis Strange, Nick Price, Mark O’Meara, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Kite, Payne Stewart, David Toms, Mickelson, Woods and others won major championships after making fundamental adjustments.
On the other hand, Chip Beck, Bill Rogers, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Baker-Finch, David Duval and Woods have struggled in trying to adapt to swing techniques that don’t fit.

Mr. Cook has hit the nail on the head with regard to Mr. Woods’ swing problems. Mr. Woods should not be faulted for firing Mr. Harmon, who was teaching Mr. Woods’ competitors without Mr. Woods’ approval. But he has replaced Mr. Harmon with method instructors (such as his neighborhood buddy Mark O’Meara) who have prompted Mr. Woods to adopt a flatter swing that is a poor fit for Tiger’s lanky physique. Whereas Mr. Woods was hitting a controlled, long fade when he was under Mr. Harmon’s tutelage, Tiger is now hitting an even longer draw, but he has not been able to control it consistently. My sense is that, unless he returns to hitting a fade, Mr. Woods will continue to struggle in comparison to his brilliance over the first five years of his pro career.
As Lee Trevino observed some years ago:

“I can talk to a fade, but a hook doesn’t listen.”