Butch and Pete are the real stars of this year
THE Major season of 2016 will be remembered for having four first-time winners.
But it has also finished two apiece between Butch Harmon and Pete Cowen – the two best coaches in modern golf.
Dustin Johnson and Jimmy Walker work with Butch and Danny Willett and Henrik Stenson are with Pete.
These two gurus have so much authority and gain instant respect.
Look at what Harmon has done for Walker. When he started working with Butch a few years ago, Jimmy was an underachiever but the improvement has been astounding.
He won five times on the PGA Tour, made his Ryder Cup debut at Gleneagles two years ago and is now the PGA Champion.
Having a few words with Butch before he teed off in the final round at Baltusrol will have filled him with the belief that he could finish off the job to win a Major.
Those same words of wisdom worked for Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Johnson earlier this year at the US Open.
It had been a lean year for Walker until he arrived at Baltusrol but there won’t have been any panic from Butch. He believed in Jimmy’s swing and was waiting for the putts to drop. That happened last week.
The biggest compliment I can pay Butch and Pete is that they teach the player – and not the method.
Who would know that Stenson and Willett have the same coach by watching their swings and how they go about the course?
A good coach works with the basic tools that a player has and makes one or two small alterations because he is already working with an exceptional golfer.
The key is no two golfers have the same swing or the same thought process.
Butch and Pete will stand on the practice ground with their man and will keep working until they get their message across. If that takes hours, so be it. If they are prepared to put the time in, the player believes it will eventually pay off.
That was the case for Stenson. He had turned 40 and had not got over the line in a Major despite a fabulous record.
He never felt the need to change his coach. The Swede and Pete have worked together for years and all that practice came to fruition over those four magic days at Royal Troon.
Butch has a fantastic set-up in Las Vegas, where his pupils can fly in and work with him for a few days under his watchful eye.
It’s a bit harder for Pete being based just outside Sheffield. But he is prepared to travel all over the world to help his players.
Butch and Pete are the best. But they would admit that John Jacobs was the first coach of note.
I sought the great man’s advice and one 30-minute session at Ganton in 1975 was particularly useful. He gave me a tip about driving which I took on to the course and won the Dunlop Masters that week.
That bit of help corrected a fault and I was filled with confidence again. That is crucial for any golfer, at any level. ONLY Rory McIlroy will know if Nike’s decision to stop making clubs and balls has been a distraction in recent weeks.
He’ll have known about this before the announcement was made public and it will be very interesting to see what he does now.
I’d expect him to continue with Nike clothing. But he might now be able to go out and pick the best clubs for him.
It took Rory a long time to adjust to his Nike clubs when he changed from Titleist in 2013. He won’t want a similar bedding-in period if he has to change again.
As for Nike, this decision has been sparked by the rise of Under Armour in the golf apparel market.
Nike will never be the leading club manufacturer. But their place as market leader for clothing has been threatened by Under Armour. Their poster boy is Jordan Spieth, and he doesn’t plug which clubs he uses.