Peter Whiteford is among the quietly spoken on the European Tour but it didn’t make the decision any easier to advise his coach of 15 years he needed a change.
The Fifer heads into today’s (THU) starting Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, now working with Gary Nichol after severing ties with Donald McKay and his coach of some 15-years.
And what makes it tougher for Whiteford is McKay is attached to the Wellsgreen golf facility near Kirkcaldy, owned by his parents and where Whiteford hit his first golf balls at age three.
Scotland’s quietly spoken Peter Whiteford makes the toughest decision of his career. (Photo – Stuart Adams/www.golftourimages.com)
“Donald’s taught me all my life and it was not easy having to say to Donald that I am changing coaches and it was a pretty difficult and not nice but the great aspect is that Donald understood and we will always remain good friends,” he said.
“And maybe that was part of the reasons I was struggling as we had maybe become too friendly.
“So with Gary I am not going to be making drastic changes and it’s all about looking at aspects of my game in a new light.
“All in all, I’ve saw Gary twice before I came out here to the Middle East and a quick half-an-hour just before leaving home.
“So I am looking forward with these new thoughts in my head. Look, my game is fine at the moment on the practice range but the main thing is trusting yourself on the golf course.”
Whiteford ended 2013 finishing a lowly 107th on the Race to Dubai with the one highlight in losing a play-off in the Ballantine’s Championship in Seoul.
And it was also a largely disappointing season he felt the for a change in coaches.
“I’m looking forward to this year and a better year than last year as 2013 was probably one of my worst seasons out here,” added Whiteford
“It doesn’t look that bad on paper and I managed to keep my card but basically it was just a couple of decent weeks and the rest I wasn’t even close so that’s the negatives from last year.
“But I have since changed a few things and none more important than changing coaches. So with Gary it’s another way for me to look at things for at least the next few weeks but then it’s not like we are changing a massive amount of things.
“I just need learn more why it’s gone wrong as opposed to …. Even my ‘B’ game has not been good enough and if you can’t get your ‘B’ game going then you’re not going to get near your ‘A’ Game.”
And while Whiteford looks also towards a first Tour win he also looks forward to August when he will be married.
Whiteford is among eight Scots in this week’s $2.7m event including World No. 66 Stephen Gallacher and the Home of Golf’s highest world ranked player.
