³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Pete Cowen with Lee Westwood at the Dubai World Championship- photo: Getty

In fact And though not all of his men are flying high - Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson, Simon Dyson and Louis Oosthuizen missed the cut - Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Soren Kjeldsen are still fighting.

But how much does a coach, well, coach at a tournament? What, for instance, does he say to his players on the range before a round?

"We visualise and play the nine shots - low draw, low fade, low straight, mid draw, mid fade, mid straight, high draw, high fade, high straight," he says. "We can't get mixed up in technique, it's a warm-up, simple as that. You're there as a safety valve."

What about earlier in the week, how much actual swing work is done during tournament time?

"There shouldn't be an awful lot. They should be ready when they come here," says England's Cowen, a former Tour pro turned PGA Master Professional. "Most of the work is done away from tournaments but I'm here because they like you to be there.

"Sometimes they'll say, 'I'm alright, leave me alone'. I'm quite happy with that."

Often a player will come in after a poor round and head straight back to the range for diagnosis and then surgery, often working until it gets dark.

"It's very important to talk to the caddie because sometimes you get a lot more sense out of the caddie than the players," says Cowen."Players are not as objective as the caddie, so you'll sit and talk to the caddie before the player even comes on the range.

"It's mostly positions of the club head. We'll get them trying to play shots and move the body to get the club in better positions. It's tying the body and hands together, which is what the golf swing is all about.

"Often the change in direction of the swing - from backswing to downswing - gets a bit quick out there because they get nervous. We can fix that in an hour and half, no problems.

"I'll get them to calm it down. 'Let the club fall, don't rush it,' I might say. Simpler the better, really.

"I'll say 'good swing' maybe four times in a session. If I say it too often, it won't have the same impact."

With so many players, Cowen must have a photographic memory for all their swings. And he admits he can instantly spot whether they are swinging properly.

"They are all individuals but I'm one of those people that can drive to a certain spot in the country and then remember it for the rest of my life. If I've been there before, I don't need a map. I know where it is."

Navigational skills like this come in handy for Cowen's globe-trotting lifestyle. He goes to about 30 tournaments a year, and flies to Spain to work with Garcia and to see Stenson. He was only back in the UK for 20 days last year.

Cowen lives 15 minutes from Westwood in the UK and visits him about three times a week when they are home.

"He's got a great range. He's got facilities like here, not quite as big, but 50 acres," says Cowen.

Westwood admits Cowen has had a "massive impact" on his game. "I've worked with him on and off since 1996. More recently he's had a big influence on my short game. My chipping, pitching and bunker play has improved immensely. It's there for everyone to see," he said.

Early on in a tournament week the player, coach and caddie might talk through their gameplan for playing that particular course.

"There are maybe four holes on any golf course that most people don't like," says Cowen. "The best thing is to work out how you're going to play those holes to your strengths, not the course's strengths.

"The designers set you an exam and you've got to make sure you pass any way you can. Golf is problem solving. How are you going to get the ball from A to B, B to C, C to D? You answer each question as it comes along. But life's problem solving. Every day you get up and have to solve problems."

Part of that problem-solving exercise at the top level is the ability to control your ball flight. This is the same for any week, but especially at Augusta where you have to hit specific parts of the green or even have to play away from certain flags. For the Masters, players will often turn up with a specific shot in their armoury.

"The 10th is a classic example," says Cowen. "McDowell always felt his drive stayed on the downslope so he wanted to get it around the corner to the bottom of the hill so he had a flatter lie.

"In Lake Nona we practised drawing a three wood for about three hours for that."

One area that Cowen is having to work on with all his players is the transition from v-groove wedges to ones with u-shaped grooves after the "v" grooves were banned on tour. The new ones generate less spin and players have had to rethink their short-game.

"It's changing the shape of shots, changing the way they see the shots," he says. A short-game practice session will focus on fine-tuning both the chip that checks on the green and the one that releases and rolls forward on landing.

"Nowadays you've got to use the bounce [sole of the club] more for flighting the ball, rather than checking the ball," adds Cowen.

At Augusta, the grass is always cut away from the green, meaning if you miss the putting surface you are always chipping into the grain.

"It's so different at the Masters," says Cowen. "You've got to make sure you chip it far enough. You can't get mixed up hitting into the green. So many times the ball will come back to you. Bunkers are more difficult here, too. They are firmer, so players struggle with that."

If you hang around the practice putting green at a tournament, soon enough you'll see a coach - sometimes a specialist putting coach - just standing, hands in pockets, watching their man putt.

Other than saying, 'you should have hit that one a bit harder' or, 'left a bit next time' I wonder what they are actually doing.

"It's like a musician listening for the perfect pitch. You're listening for the perfect strike," says Cowen, clicking his fingers to demonstrate when a putter has hit the right note.

"You're not always going to have a perfect stroke but you can have a perfect strike. You might use a few gadgets to make sure the putter head is on line, but it's mainly listening.

"Here at Augusta it's all about the pace. These greens are miles faster than anything else they putt."

Some players also employ mind coaches, but not Westwood.

"He has always been so strong, mentally," says Cowen. "He knows exactly what he's doing. It's not an area I even need to talk about. He will say,' why do I need somebody to tell me how good I am when I know how good or bad I am?'

It doesn't take a genius to work out he's quite good at the moment.