Masters 2019: Patrick Reed's new coach David Leadbetter opens up on working with reigning champion

With less than three weeks to go before his Masters defence, Patrick Reed’s unsteady form took a nosedive. A bleak collapse in the final round of the Players Championship was ably supported by further woe the following week, with an opening 78 and 76 at the Valspar, that saw the 28-year-old succumb to a first missed cut in six months.

It was at that point, trending with the erratic downturn of a deflating balloon that Reed’s wife, Justine, made the considered, but relatively dramatic decision to put a distress call out to hall-of-fame coach David Leadbetter. “Would you be prepared to come to Palm Harbor and have a look at Patrick’s swing?”

The Worthing-born instructor has played technician to the talents of countless major champions, including Nick Price, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and was working with Greg Norman while the Australian still used a persimmon driver. He’s also renowned for his ability to abate the tides of a drop in form. At his academy’s headquarters in Orlando, Florida there is a note from Lee Westwood after the Englishman’s catastrophic slump in 2001. “Thank you for saving me,” it reads.

The former winner of Golf Digest’s ‘Best coach of all-time’ award had never even previously shaken Reed’s hand, let alone spoken to him, but after a few brief session’s the Texan was convinced and Leadbetter was confirmed as his full-time swing coach.

New inclusions to Team Reed are exceptionally rare. His current coach, Kevin Kirk, who will remain part of the team, has worked with Reed for seven years. Justine is the key decision maker in the camp and her brother, Kessler, is Reed’s caddie. They are one of the most tight-knit and closed off teams in golf. So the decision to work with Leadbetter was a stark and belated acknowledgement that, less than 20 days from his title defence, angst had finally taken over.

“He was frustrated,” Leadbetter tells The Independent. “He was a little lost. Before he was just guessing. He told me: ‘I didn’t have the answers. I hit two shots and they felt the same and I’d look up and one was going right and one was going left. I just had no control over the ball.’ Now, he has something concrete to work on.”

Reed has never recaptured the thrilling and divisive air of conviction that allowed him to see out victory from the final group at Augusta last year. Mid-range finishes towards the end of the year were compounded by a lacklustre Ryder Cup performance – and the acrimony that followed – and despite a series of top-25 finishes in 2019, he ranks 194th (54.3%) on the Tour for driving accuracy and 158th for greens in regulation (65.2%). His short game and putting are all that has seen him hold on to a declining world ranking which now sits at No 18.

The fix will not be quick, even if Reed is taking comfort in subtle signs of improvement. Leadbetter lives by the mantra of Harvey Penick, one of his predecessors in golf’s pantheon of legendary coaches. “Harvey used to say ‘Here’s a bottle of pills, but you can’t take the whole bottle, you take one at a time.’ Patrick is a feel player, so we’re conscious of that. I don’t want to turn him into a robot.”

“He has an old-school style, where the hands are more involved in the swing. But he had got a little loose and long which required too much timing so we’re working on getting it a little bit shorter and tighter… He was bending his upper body too far forwards and sitting back on his heels so we’ve moved him forwards towards the ball so his posture is in a more athletic position.”

The cheery Zimbabwean-twanged instructor was, of course, aware of the distinctly surly aura that surrounds Reed. The Green Jacket holder is notoriously private, practically estranged from his peers, with notable moments where a palpable discord has bubbled over into the public. Yet, despite hearing the well-known locker room stories and practice green whispers, Leadbetter has been caught by intrigue and admiration of Reed’s relentless work ethic.

“He’s a very interesting character I have to say,” Leadbetter says. “You can sense how competitive he is. You get that straight away. He’s very determined, a little bit different, maybe not the most popular with his peers but having said that he’s a very gritty, confident fellow and he’s a very, very hard worker. In some ways, he reminds me of Nick Faldo. Nick did it his way, regardless of what other people thought. Maybe he wasn’t Mr Popular, but it certainly made him successful.

“Sometimes I think people get a bad rap. You do one thing in this world, especially in the age of social media, and all of a sudden you’re a villain and people overlook all the good things. We all make mistakes when we’re young. From my standpoint, he’s very polite and it’s not about the past, it’s what it is right now.”

Does he have hopes that Reed’s game has been plastered and bandaged enough that he has at least a chance to defend his crown? “He’s got an immense amount of talent. He’s a world class player. You’ve got Rory [McIlroy] in form, Dustin [Johnson] in form so you’ve got be on your A-game. He’s a brilliant short game, wedge player and putter. He told me, ‘If you can find fairways and greens, I can cope with the rest.’