J Schil's Blog

Charles Barkley: done. Next up for Tiger’s swing coach Hank Haney: Ray Romano. From the Golf Channel:

Following the success of The Haney Project, which featured Charles Barkley’s attempt to fix his quirky golf swing, Emmy award-winner Ray Romano has signed on to be Hank Haney’s next student for the second season of the series.

Scheduled to debut in spring 2010, the series will follow the same format that made the premiere season a ratings success. Romano will attempt to improve his golf game under the tutelage of Haney, Tiger Woods’ coach, and they’ll begin working together this fall.

“We are very excited for Ray Romano to be joining the Golf Channel family,” said Tom Stathakes, Golf Channel senior vice president of programming, production and operations. “The first season of The Haney Project was a giant success for us. With Ray’s sense of humor and dedication to improving his golf game, we are confident season two will be bigger than ever.”

Romano is a self-professed lover of golf and a regular at celebrity tournaments across the country. Although he currently holds a 13 handicap, he craves improvement and is confident that Haney can help with his quest to break 80.

“I’m a huge fan of ‘The Haney Project’ and I’m excited to take on a new challenge,” Romano said. “I followed Charles’ progress week in and out during the first season and I realized that Hank Haney was the guy who could finally get me to the next level in my golf game. I’ve tried many ways to improve over the years, and I thought, ‘why not work with the best coach around?’

“I told my wife about the project, and while she doesn’t know anything about golf, she does like the idea that after 21 years it’s someone else’s job to try and fix me.”

Romano’s other TV project begins in December, when he will executive produce and star in the TNT production, ‘Men of a Certain Age’, where he plays a friendly, slightly neurotic, divorced father of two who had dreams of being a professional golfer but instead owns and runs a party store.