MIKE WALKER

SWING COACH

“Igave Matt his first lesson when he was 10. I started working with him properly when he was 14, but what distinguished him then was his dedication. It’s the same even now. We might be at a tournament and while everyone else is having a beer, he’s got his Macbook out and he’s updating all his stats.

“He’s just got an insatiable appetite for the game. In January last year, he went away for a month and came back with a load of data on chipping which showed that using a cackhanded grip was more effective for him. And he’s been proven right because he gained about 75 places in strokes-gained around the green last year!

“There have been times when I’ve thought something’s not possible and he still manages to find a way. I remember walking around Erin Hills at the 2017 US Open and thinking Matt couldn’t contend because he didn’t have the distance. But he’s probably added 15 yards to his average driving distance since then as a result of the training he’s done with Matt Roberts and the Stack System with Sasho Mackenzie.

“His golf swing has probably changed more in the last two years than it had in the previous eight. I remember him hitting six or seven degrees down on the ball with a driver and having quite a strong cut bias. Now his hand path is a lot deeper and lower, and you can see him using his body more to his benefit.

“He sent me a screengrab of his Trackman numbers the other week and he had 124mph clubhead speed. I’m working with other players who were always longer than Matt and now he’s got a better ball speed and club speed. It’s amazing what he’s done, but it has come with a lot of challenges because it did create some adaptations in his swing technique. Some were good, some were not so good. It has been a balancing act, but I feel like Matt could go back to Erin Hills and win there now.”