The Haney Project

Apparently, Olympics legend Michael Phelps doesn’t have as smooth a stroke on the golf course as he does in the swimming pool. Recently crowned the most decorated Olympian in history with 22 career Olympic medals after winning four golds and two silvers in London, the U.S. swimmer today announced plans for the next stage of his career: to play the world’s greatest golf courses and improve his golf game under the watchful eye of Golf Channel’s Hank Haney. Season 5 of The Haney Project — which begins production in September and will start airing on Golf Channel in February 2013 — will […]

By Ryan So it’s been a while since we’ve seen Sir Charles swing the golf bats on The Haney Project. The last episode, “Lights, Camera … Hesitation?” aired nearly a month ago. So the show gives us a little recap of what we’ve seen so far, and it’s a video montage interspersed with words pulled from those motivational posters: OPTIMISM… HOPEFUL … FRUSTRATION… RECOMMITTED… It’s been 30 weeks since Charles began working with Hank, and after the debacle that we saw in the last episode, Charles is going to go back to work and fully commit himself to fixing his […]

By Ryan It’s been two weeks between new episodes of The Haney Project. The previous episode, “Welcome to Arizona,” was filmed just before Christmas 2008. This episode, “Lights, Camera … Hesitation?” begins at the Barkley, Bean, Bryant & Friends Celebrity Skins Game at the YMCA Par 3 in Lakeland, Fla., which was held Feb. 6, 2009. So what happened in that monthlong span between episodes? Well, Barkley had his infamous DUI in the early morning hours of Dec. 31, and he was put on leave by TNT. He was still on leave from TNT at the time this episode was […]

By Ryan The Haney Project gives us our first glimpse of Charles Barkley’s house in Scottsdale, AZ. He’s got little dogs running around everywhere — Charles has no idea what breed they are or anything. It’s like The Osbournes in there. We also get a look at Charles’ home course, Gainey Ranch Golf Club, which is what I imagine Golf Heaven looks like. Haney learned a lot while they were on the course in Atlanta (in last week’s episode). When Charles starts getting bad, he keeps getting worse. Charles has been keeping his head steady on the practice tee, but […]

By Ryan Charles calls into Howard Eskin’s Philadelphia radio show to talk smack. Howard, like most people, is suffering in this bad economy. Howard was in the ass-kicking business, and business is bad since Charles left. Eskin doesn’t think Haney has a snowball’s chance in fixing Barkley. “I’ll run around in my underwear on the golf course if this thing works,” he says. Charles should hold him to that. We get a little run-down of Charles’ hit list, people he has to beat at golf someday because they’ve talked so much trash about his golf game. Here’s the list as […]

By Ryan Charles has been hard at work, practicing his game, losing weight and improving his flexibility. Charles says he’s practiced on his own 10 or 15 times since he’s last seen Haney. Haney might have been skeptical before, but he sees great progress. “You’re so much better, it’s ridiculous,” Haney says. Today, Charles is going on his first golf course adventure with his new swing. A few minor celebrities show up at the tee box: former NHL star Brett Hull and golfer Tommy Armour III. Charles starts out well, but by the time Hull and Armour show up, he’s […]