"We changed everything" - The impact of Brewer's coaching on Hewson's LET triumph

30/07/2024

Alice Hewson made a dream start to her Ladies European Tour career when she won on her first outing at the South Africa Women's Open in 2020. Her Coach, Stuart Brewer discusses how he began working with Hewson and what it means to him to coach a tour winner.

After such a flourishing beginning to life on the LET further victories were expected but none came and, while her results were good enough to place her inside the top 15 on the money list, her game began to fall away in 2022. Now Hewson is a two-time winner after capturing the recent Ladies Swiss Open where the English star closed with a six-under 65, thanks to a storming finish where she slam-dunked a bunker shot on 17 before, for the third day running, making a birdie on 18 to finish on 11-under.

Hewson, with two putts to win, made another birdie on 18 for her second win on Tour and give herself a chance of making Suzann Pettersen's Solheim Cup side in September.

"It’s been a while since I’ve been in this situation. Coming from my first ever event on Tour [which I won], to now, it’s been a journey. A lot of ups and downs. There are so many people to thank. There were times when the belief was definitely missing. I went through a bit of a rough patch two-and-a-bit years ago. So to be back here winning, I’m very grateful,” explained Hewson in Switzerland.

In 2022 Hewson began working with PGA Fellow Professional Stuart Brewer and he has helped Hewson make some necessary swing changes and turn her fortunes around. Aside from the recent win, there was a top 20 at the Women's Open at Walton Heath, a 12th at the Scandinavian Mixed where she was in a tie for third after three days against the cream of the men’s DP World Tour as well as other near misses in regular tour events. The Lincolnshire Professional has previously worked with the likes of Whiney Hillier, Sophie Walker and Trish Johnson and here he explains how Hewson has turned herself into a two-time winner.

How did you begin working with Alice?

She is friends with Whitney Hillier and she was struggling with her game so her dad asked what I would do with her. So I filmed her when she was out on the course and I gave him a bit of a plan of what I would do and she came to see me the week after. Alice is one of those golfers who had enjoyed a good amateur career but I'm not quite sure that she really knew how things worked. I think she just did it and it worked. So, from a self-sufficiency perspective, I think she was very vulnerable.

What did you work on in her swing?

I explained that her swing on the backswing was rolling the club flat. The clubhead went behind and she was flat below the initial starting plane. She then lifted the arms up higher, which then forced her to move the hands and arms out away from the body, which then got the hands too far out, and there were hosel and heel contacts.

So we changed everything; the takeaway and the halfway back position, how the arms worked around and we got Alice to shallow the club. This was all mid-season so it was quite a big change. But we did it and we saw each other regularly. We just did little pieces at a time and she stuck with it beautifully. In a relatively short space of time, she was actually competitive. She actually looked like she was going to win last year, to be fair. So now she has a better understanding of her swing and what she's got to do to make it work.

What parts of her game do you coach?

I do her long game which is probably my speciality and I do all her short game so chipping, bunker shots and pitching. Short game-wise, I am quite influenced by the Golfing Machine and Joseph Mayo, I really like what he does and the work he's done with Viktor Hovland has been phenomenal. In fact, we spoke after Alice won and he asked if she had read his information and I said that she gets it second-hand through me! What he does is tremendous.

What stats do you work with?

We work with Upgame which is a statistical analysis system. There's always information coming back from Alice and, with any player, sometimes that will be emotional and sometimes it will look like one area is wrong but it'll be something else. But Alice is great at giving information and it's pretty much factual.

What has particularly worked well in your off-course work?

We had a week away in Spain in January before the season started. The driver was being hit a little bit too much downwards and she wasn't coming from the inside enough. So we had to try and get the path more in to out, more upward and to get the spin numbers better to help maximise her distance. We really worked hard on that and that's increased the distance nicely. She can now get up to 100 miles an hour which was unthinkable last year and that's been an important step forward. So that trip to San Roque was really important. We had a whole week of just working on the game and it was the week before the Kenya Open where she was third so that was a great start to the season.

How much of a thrill was it as a coach to help a player win a tour event?

Amazing, absolutely incredible. I'm still ecstatic about it. I think it's been an ambition all my life that I have a tour winner and the messages that I've had from people have been incredible. And obviously that makes me even keener to get the next one. One's good but let's have another one, please.

How were you following events in Switzerland?

Bizarrely it was my wife's birthday that day and we were in a restaurant with my son Jonny, daughter-in-law and my granddaughter and we were checking every hole and every shot. We knew it was a play-off but we couldn't quite work out what had happened and then we got in the car and my phone went crazy. My other son, Ben, previously caddied for Alice but he now works with David Micheluzzi so it was just brilliant.

What does the next few months hold for you with some possibly huge weeks on the horizon?

She has asked me to go to Scotland a couple of weeks before the Women's Open to practise on the links turf at St Andrews. Basically, we’ll try and mirror what she's going to be up against at the Open. Alice is prepared to invest in herself, it's the equivalent of me going to see Denis Pugh, if you don't do it, you're just going to hold yourself back. She's very prepared to put the effort and the time in to do it.

How do you see Alice's chances of making her Solheim Cup debut in September?

I think they'll be very good if she can have another win. She's 11th on the European standings and, if she could have another big week, I think she'd be well worth a pick. She's that kind of team player and I think that she would rise to the occasion. She played in the International Crown this year in America and she was very comfortable in that circle. She was 16th in the Women's Open last year and she enjoys the bigger events. She's shown that she's not afraid and she now has a swing which will stand up to the pressure. It's always subjective but I genuinely think that she would be as good a pick as anybody.