Final Shot with David Leadbetter

Your female Pro students seem to have greater success on the tour in recent years…

To be honest, I have cut back a lot because I have been doing this for a long time. I really don’t want to travel to tournaments every week. It’s a full-time occupation. I have families I got to be with. I am writing books and I have radio show. I have to run the academy and corporate outings. I can’t devote all my time to coaching.

When I am at home I would see the girls (Lydia Ko and Micelle Wie). They are less demanding than the guys. Though I still have a few good players like Ryan Blaum and Cabrera-Bello. But I am not out there with them every week. But that’s what happens now. Teachers go out probably 2 weeks out of every month. This generation of players are different. Because they went to college and the college coach does everything for them. When they turn Pro, they still expect and want a life coach instead of golf coach.

Is this the biggest difference between coaching the guys rather than the girls?

People ask about this a lot. I think from a psychological standpoint, you really have to pump the girls up a little bit. Because some of them are not as confident as they should be. The girls would be a bit timid comparing to the guys. I am just generalizing as some of the girls can be quite aggressive. But from the teaching perspective, every player is unique and requires specific attentions. However, I have never believed that there should different ways to teach males and females.

Do you have a favourite course?

I love Links golf courses because they have different characters every day you play them. Depending on the winds and situations, so on and so forth. There are 2 beautiful courses I really like, one is Turnberry, another is Royal County Down in Northern Ireland.