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Mathew Scott

The first thing that strikes you about Andy Leadbetter is his energy.
He has just spent the weekend in the stands at the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes but he bounds into the room looking none the worse for wear after two days that normally make the Monday afterwards a misery.
'It was brilliant,' he bubbles immediately. 'The action was great and sixes is just a totally exciting form of the game.'
Apart from the apparent lack of a hangover, what makes the situation remarkable is Leadbetter's American upbringing. To most in the United States, the game of cricket ranks right up there next to watching paint dry in terms of excitement value.
The key to it all lies in Leadbetter's next statement. 'My father, he taught me all about cricket,' he says.
'So the Sixes were something I didn't want to miss.'
Ah, the father. That would be David Leadbetter. British born (hence the family's knowledge of cricket) and a man who has done more to shape the game of golf than perhaps any other coach in history.
It is the presence of the Mission Hills branch of the David Leadbetter Golfing Academy that has brought Leadbetter the younger to China - and straight into what he believes is the challenge of a lifetime.
'I had a lot of other options but I figured, being 23 years old, I wanted to make a big splash on the teaching world,' says Leadbetter. 'I could have gone to my father's academy in LA, or in Hawaii, but I figured, looking at the way golf is developing in China, it was a great opportunity to bring my kind of training and coaching techniques to people who have not experienced them before. It's a great challenge.'
On reflection, a life immersed in the game of golf was really all there was ever going to be for Leadbetter. Born to a father who has guided the careers of the likes of Ernie Els and Justin Rose - and to a mother who had plied her trade on the LPGA Tour - he was a star in his home state of Florida at both junior and high school levels and won a full golf scholarship at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Come the end of college, however, and the young Leadbetter was not so  sure which way he was going to go.
'I've been playing golf since before I could walk,' he explains. 'But I never really wanted to teach until I was 20 - I always wanted to play. I've always been such a competitive person, that's the way I'd always thought.
'But I took some time off and realised then I had all this knowledge from being around the game, being around my father, the players. I realised I knew what it takes to be a champion, the hours of dedication and work. But I also realised that these things don't really suit my personality.'
Hence the decision to follow in his father's footsteps. 'I found I had a passion for helping people learn, that my buzz could come from a great lesson or from seeing someone develop,' says Leadbetter.
The Leadbetter academy has been working  with Mission Hills in helping to increase the coaching options  open to both junior and senior golfers in Asia. And Leadbetter says he has thrown himself into the fray since arriving in mid-September.
'Every day here is like being reborn to me,' he says. 'The different culture, the different people, every day is like a new beginning. I'm just having a great time.'
He says he has been immediately struck by the way China's junior golfers, in particular, approach the game.
'The one thing that's great about the golf out here is the focus,' he says. 'The junior players seem more driven, almost like they have tunnel vision when it comes to what they want to achieve. For a coach that's half the battle won. It seems the kids here, if they make up their minds to do something, they'll do it.
'They really put their heart and soul into it - it's not like they are just doing it because their parents want them to do it. You can really feel it when that happens and I've hardly felt that here.'
Leadbetter sets out two main goals for himself at Mission Hills - to make the complex the hub for players - amateur and professional, old and young - in Asia and to lift the standard of the academy so it is on a par with his family's facilities in the United States.
And as he leaves to meet an evening coaching appointment, you're left in little doubt Leadbetter has the ability - and the energy - to get those things done.
'What I've already found with a lot of things in China is that everyone wants it now, they want it fast and they want it big,' he says. 'But there are many factors to golf, and they all need work. So that is the type of thinking we are promoting. Work on your short game when you are young and the power, the flash, will come later. Golf is a marathon not a sprint.'
Andy's three easy steps to improving your game
1 Practise with a purpose: 'To improve your game fast, it is important to learn the art of practising. Make your practice efficient and effective. Never go to the driving range just to hit balls. Have at least one goal that you want to get accomplished every time you practise.'
2 50 per cent short game/50 per cent full swing: 'This is the fastest way to lower your scores. The average weekend player does not practise enough to hit every green in regulation so it is important to learn the art of getting 'up and down'.'
3 Alignment: 'The most common mistake I see with all amateurs is poor alignment. When you are on the driving range, put a club down parallel to your target half way between your feet and the ball.''



Following in father's footsteps