Who Is Lee Westwood's Coach?

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 7 April 2021

We take a look at who is currently part of Westwood's coaching setup.

Who Is Lee Westwood's Coach?

Lee Westwood has had a long and illustrious career and there is still more to be added to his incredible resume.

He has had a fantastic start to 2021 too, with runner-up finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. He's almost a shoe-in to be part of Europe's 2021 Ryder Cup team too.

No doubt a key part in his success has been his choice of coach so acknowledging that let's take a look at who gives him advice right now.

Who Is Lee Westwood's Coach?

Right now we believe Westwood's current coach is former professional golfer Robert Rock. It has been reported the pair started working together at the latter stages of 2019 and the partnership worked right away as Westwood won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at the start of the 2020 calendar year. He has also gone from strength to strength since then as well with some great performances in huge tournaments.

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Rock is perhaps best known for beating out Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods at the 2012 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, but he is fast becoming well respected out on Tour as a coach.

He works with Westwood, Matt Wallace, Matthias Schwab and several others. With a couple of other coaches, Rock and his team see roughly 20 players.

“I don’t use Trackman, I have my own method,” he said of his coaching philosophy. “Trackman is probably one of the reasons that sends players down the wrong route and stops them from playing their best golf. It’s a new piece of technology and you’re left to interpret it how you choose because it doesn’t come with a set of instructions.

“I’ve learnt to trust my own judgement of what I see and I think I’ve been around enough good players to see good golf shots, you can see them, hear them, tell people when they’re in the right frame of mind and when their swings are in order you can see it clearly. But, the game has changed and hitting it a long way is a massive part of it now.”

With McGregor playing in Saudi Arabia (Getty Images)

Westwood has also been working with fitness coach Dr Steve McGregor for a number of years now with the Englishman crediting his coach with turning around his fitness.

McGregor has built a very good reputation when it comes to strength and conditioning across a variety of sports.

He famously worked with Rory McIlroy on his fitness and has also drawn up fitness regimes for Manchester City, Leeds and Aston Villa football clubs.

He was formerly employed by NBA franchise the New York Knicks as a fitness trainer and in 2015 the board at the Lawn Tennis Association sought him out personally to try and halt their rapid decline in performances.

In the past one of the key coaches to work with Westwood was Pete Cowen. The pair worked together from when Westwood turned professional, and aside the odd split, Cowen was on hand to give advice all the way up to the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.

At the time Chubby Chandler, Westwood's manager, said of the split;

"Lee needs to try something different with his chipping and putting. He's never been the greatest chipper, but his putting also needs work. He knows that. Parting company with Pete is because he's passing on advice to Lee but he's not around to follow it through.

"Lee is very structured about going to the gym, but not about practising so when Graeme McDowell and Pete's other players are booking him, Lee is leaving it late and is having to work around them. Pete was at Kiawah for two days with Graeme this week when Lee wanted to work with him, so it just wasn't working out. Lee's the sort who needs someone standing over him, making him hit chip after chip and telling him what he's doing wrong. It's not like he's got the yips or anything – he just needs to improve his technique."

Cowen and Westwood had a lot of success together as shown by the fact Westwood got to world number one in 2010, replacing Tiger Woods.

Cowen has also worked with Darren Clarke, Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell, Danny Willett, Henrik Stenson, Thomas Bjorn, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Thomas Pieters and Matthew Fitzpatrick. A lot of players have asked for the odd bit of advice too such as Viktor Hovland and Brooks Koepka.

Westwood has also worked with putting coach Chris Henry, short-game specialist Phil Kenyon, David Leadbetter, and Sean Foley as well.

Related: Who Is Lee Westwood's Caddie?

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Who Is Lee Westwood's Coach?

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