After another disappointing performance in a major, Lee Westwood has split with both longtime swing coach Pete Cowen and interim caddie Mike Waite.
Chubby Chandler, Westwood’s manager, said that “Lee admits he needed to shake things up,” and that the Englishman had “lost his focus and his enthusiasm a bit because he wasn’t getting the rewards for his long game.”
The world No. 4, who has yet to win a major, will not use a long-game coach “for the foreseeable future,” Chandler said, but instead will focus on improving both his chipping and putting.
“When you miss the cut (after leading the PGA field through two rounds in greens in regulation), it gets even more frustrating, and that probably brought matters to a head,” Chandler said, according to multiple reports. “It does start to get you down when you keep walking off feeling disappointed and frustrated, so we’re going to put a few things in place, including a new short-game coach.”
Westwood finished T-3 and T-10 in the year’s first two majors, respectively, but then tied for 45th at the Open Championship and missed the cut at last week’s PGA after rounds of 75-77.
As for Westwood’s caddie, he lost his regular looper, Billy Foster, to a knee injury in May. Mike Kerr, who has caddied for Alvaro Quiros, will take Waite’s place on the bag.
