David Leadbetter gave his first lessons at the age of 17. Today, that 17 has morphed into a 71. Which means that he has spent the past 54 years coaching some of the world’s finest golfers. Among them, they have amassed some two dozen major championships among more than 150 worldwide victories.
What is more, there could be more potential major winners in the pipeline. Hurly Long, the German golfer who finished second in last year’s Irish Open, is one. American Sean Crocker, who won the 2022 Hero Open, another.
Again, who would not want to see Mykhailo “Misha” Golod, the No. 1 Ukrainian golfer whom Leadbetter helped settle in America with a full scholarship to his Orlando academy. Today, the teen has a scholarship awaiting him beginning in the fall at the University of North Carolina.
Leadbetter’s illustrious career took off with a missed 10-footer at Foxhills in the European Tour’s 1976 Qualifying School, the one in which future Masters and Open champion Sandy Lyle finished first. Leadbetter was one shot too many to collect his player’s card.
The Sussex-born Englishman had set his heart on becoming a tournament professional. Though he had not played well for the first 3½ rounds at Foxhills, things started to stir on the last nine holes. He made 2 at the par-4 11th and, when he followed that eagle with a couple of birdies, a friend came across to inform Leadbetter that his player’s card was within reach.
There were no leaderboards in those days, and Leadbetter sensed – quite rightly, as it turned out – that the 10-footer he had left on the home green was one of those “must make” putts. It stopped agonisingly short and, once the bad news was confirmed, Leadbetter’s first thoughts were along the lines of, ‘What on earth am I going to do with myself now?’
Leadbetter’s first placement in the U.S. was at Oak Park Country Club in suburban Chicago, a club where the female members were less interested in improving their swings than trying – unsuccessfully, as it turned out – to marry him off to one of their daughters.
Because there was no Challenge Tour option for those who missed out at the Qualifying School in those days, and with his parents about to return to England from a trouble-torn Rhodesia (known today as Zimbabwe), he decided to stay put and find himself a teaching position.
Like a hundred or so others, he spotted such an opportunity at Staverton Park in the Midlands. The club’s owner, a farmer rather than a golfer, called him in for an interview. The moment when he realised that Leadbetter was as crazy on cricket as he was himself, the deal was sealed.
“Do what you like with the golf,” came the farmer’s instruction.
So Leadbetter ruled the roost at the club and, by way of an early move, he set up a driving range.
In 1978, he met with the late Phil Ritson, a native Zimbabwean and formerly the head coach in South Africa who by then had become the director of golf at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. When Ritson suggested that he could find Leadbetter a job in the States, the friendly farmer at Staverton Park thought that Leadbetter should seize the chance, and merely asked him to find a replacement for himself before he left.
It so happened that the late Andy Bean, then the playing professional at Grenelefe in Haines City, Florida, had started an Andy Bean Golf Studio, which no longer was the same priority it once had been before he became a regular winner on the PGA Tour. Leadbetter seized the opportunity to take it over, and so began the first of the 36 David Leadbetter Academy locations, which are dotted around the world.
In 2019, Leadbetter, sold the rights to Golfzon, a South Korean company which specialises in simulators and wanted the Leadbetter name to boost its business. Today, the Englishman remains a consultant of what now is known as Golfzon Leadbetter Academy.
From the start, he had found the Korean way of golf to be something of an eye-opener.
“Did you know,” Leadbetter began, “that there’s more indoor golf than outdoor golf in Korea?”
Apparently Korean businessmen like nothing so much as using their lunch breaks to play famous courses at one of the ever-increasing number of simulator centres.
GGP was rather better versed regarding how the Korean women outstrip the men when it comes to star status (35 major titles to the men’s one).
One of the first Korean players to come knocking at the door of Leadbetter’s original academy was Se Ri Pak, the daughter of this tough guy who had his own ideas on how to get the best out of his talented offspring.
“Back in Korea,” Leadbetter said, “he had Se Ri hopping on one leg up and down the staircases to their high-rise flat.”
It is well known that the dad made his daughter, the future five-time major champion, spend the night in a graveyard by way of strengthening her mental game. Still more alarming is Leadbetter’s haunting memory of how the father made Pak watch dogfights without showing any emotion.
Michelle Wie, a U.S. Women’s Open champion, was another Leadbetter protégé and one with whom he remains friendly to this day.
“She hit the ball farther at 13 – 300 yards – than she did at 15,” he said. Only when, at some point, someone suggested the two of them write a book, Leadbetter said it wouldn’t be possible because Wie did something differently on a daily basis.
Remember that table-top putting motion?
“Had (Michelle Wie) gone on to win (the 2005 U.S. Men's Amateur Public Links Championship), she would have been invited to play in the Masters.”
David LeadbetteR
A favourite week for Leadbetter was in 2005 when Wie played in the U.S. Men’s Amateur Public Links Championship and reached the quarterfinals.
“Had she gone on to win, she would have been invited to play in the Masters,” he said. Now, she is happily married, goes by the name Wie West and has a daughter who, should she take to golf, would follow an easier schedule than her mum did as she collected a Tiger Woods-like variety of injuries.
Leadbetter also coached Lydia Ko, who was No. 1 in the world when she went through a bad patch, prompting her parents to change everything, including her coach.
“What a lot of people fail to understand is that golf is not an exact science,” Leadbetter said. “There are too many variables. The coach’s job is to bring the individual out of the individual, if you like… We’re not dealing with robots.”
At which point he issued the reminder that Jack Nicklaus, arguably the greatest player of all time, stayed with his coach, Jack Grout, throughout his playing career.
Intriguingly, when Leadbetter is asked to identify a father who made an outstanding fist of bringing up a talented son or daughter, he names Richard Williams, father of tennis champions Venus and Serena. Far from giving them the chance to run out of steam too soon, he kept them well clear of the highly competitive junior scene.
“Bearing in mind that there was no rule book on how to bring up a prodigy in those days, he did a great job,” Leadbetter said.
Nick Faldo, who won six majors after Leadbetter had rebuilt his swing for him, was arguably the most famous of Leadbetter’s male pupils. He also worked with such champions as Ernie Els, Nick Price, Mark McNulty and Charles Howell III. At one point in Tiger Woods’ junior days, Woods’ late father, Earl, asked Leadbetter to look at his son’s swing. Leadbetter suggested that he could “cover the ball” a bit more, i.e., get his body more over the ball when he was making contact.
Not too long ago, when Leadbetter’s talented daughter, Hally, interviewed Tiger for Golf Digest, Hally asked how her dad’s lesson had worked out. With a twinkle in his eye, Woods replied that he shot 78 the next day. Leadbetter’s retort was no less mischievous. Namely, that Woods hadn’t done too badly for the next 20 years or so.
Apart from his busy coaching schedule of the moment, Leadbetter is designing a course with Price near Sarasota, Florida, where the practice ground is labelled “Field of Dreams.”
Of course, Leadbetter is proud of what he has achieved, but when asked for further details of his career, he switches the conversation to family feats. Kelly (née Fuiks), whom he married in 1983 shortly after she had turned professional, was a two-time winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links who also won on the Ladies European Tour and played the LPGA Tour. At 13, she held a world age-group record in throwing a javelin before turning to golf.
In addition to the aforementioned Hally, the couple have two sons, Andy and James. Andy has followed his dad into teaching and is stationed in Mexico; James is working toward making it on tour.
As for Hally, she is everything from a writer to one of those modern-day social-media influencers.
To give an example of her talents, what better than to mention a recent podcast which begins: “Yes, I’m David Leadbetter’s daughter and, no, I can’t fix your slice.”
E-MAIL LEWINE
Top: David Leadbetter, 71, gave his first lessons at 17.
ANDREW REDINGTON, GETTY IMAGES