The month of February treated me to not just one, but two new experiences – the first of which was an all-access pass to the annual PGA Show, which obviously had to be live streamed from the companies’ personalised studios this year, writes RYAN CAIRNS.
From a live Zoom chat with ‘Morikawa and Nantz’ about the 2020 PGA Championship, to the latest innovations and trends in the golf industry, it was a fascinating and highly engaging week!
That brings me to the next experience, which honestly left me feeling a lot more confused than anything else, as it involved ‘disliking’ Patrick Reed just a little bit less than before …
The ‘Reed experience’ could not have come in a stranger week either, as it took place on the Wednesday evening of his win at the Farmers Insurance tournament. The event that also happened to be the scene of yet another ruling controversy. One which he candidly explained away on live TV with NBC’s commentators, just moments after the round. Another classic, ‘He said, Reed said’ scenario?
In the 48 hours leading up to the rules saga, however, my opinion on Reed had changed ever so slightly. All courtesy of a weekly ‘Teach-In’ Zoom call with his new coach, and our Royal Harare Academy’s founder, David Leadbetter.
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I could sit and listen to David talk about a golfer’s swing for hours (even Reed’s) and this call was no different. David walked us through the changes they had made to Reed’s posture, hand path in the take-away and drills they were doing to encourage more body rotation through impact. One of the other instructors then asked David what it’s like to work with Reed. David was sincere in his response and went on to explain his intrigue around the person himself, before meeting up with him on a driving range in Tampa a couple of years ago.
‘Did you know that Patrick had grown up in an abusive household’? David asked all of us, in response to the question. In fact, his father’s parting comment as he was leaving the house at the age of 19 to pursue his dream was that he would never amount to anything more than a struggling mini-tour pro.
The silence in response to David’s story was deafening so he continued to explain how his own intrigue had then turned into something more, as he set out to help Reed ‘smoothen out the edges’ and find more peace, on and off the course – not for our sake as the viewers, but for his own.
