Aaron Baddeley Abandons the Stack & Tilt

Aaron Baddeley reunites with coach Dale Lynch

AARON Baddeley has returned to his childhood coach in an effort to rediscover the form that not so long ago seemed destined to make him a superstar.

In a surprising development, Baddeley has reunited with Melbourne's Dale Lynch, nearly eight years after dumping him in favour of the better-known David Leadbetter.

“I'm really excited to start working with Dale again and I feel he can take us where I want to go, to win major championships,” Baddeley said today on the eve of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Baddeley floundered after leaving Lynch for Leadbetter, but he got his game back on track after subsequently switching to the American coaching duo of Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer.

He has won twice on the US PGA Tour and once in Australia in the past three years and also led in the final round at the US Open two years ago.

But he has regressed somewhat over the past six months.

He ranks second last on the US Tour in driving accuracy this year, and fourth last in greens in regulation, but No.1 in putting.

“I haven't quite seen the results I wanted,” he said. “The past year has been a little inconsistent.

“I thought I was making good progress but there were a couple of things in the swing that weren't clicking, so I went and saw Dale for a second opinion.

“I liked what he said, talking about golf in general. That's when I decided to make the switch back.”

Baddeley, 28, said he did not regret leaving Lynch in the first place.

“I feel I've learnt a lot from David Leadbetter and Andy and Mike. And I feel Dale's learnt a lot in the last seven or eight years. He's a better coach now and I'm a better student.”

Lynch, who also coaches Australia's No.1 golfer, Geoff Ogilvy, is delighted to have Baddeley back on board.

“Realistically, Aaron has more than enough talent to win a major and beyond. He's at least as talented as Geoff,” Lynch said.

“At the moment, his (poor) driving accuracy and greens in regulation (percentages), there's the issue right there. It's a matter of lifting those stats.”

Fellow coach Steve Bann, a friend and business partner of Lynch, was publicly critical of Baddeley for leaving Lynch in the first place.

“Aaron was playing world-class golf as a kid and I was as much disappointed for him as for Lynchy,” Bann said.

“He had a good, sound technical golf swing. He was only a young fellow and he was going to get stronger and psychologically better.

“But he was in too much of a hurry to be the No.1 player in the world.

“The things he was doing, he should have kept doing. It's a real shame because there were two or three years of wasted opportunity there.

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