Lee Westwood has sacked his coach and caddie following a disappointing showing at the US PGA Championship.

Westwood missed the cut at Kiawah Island, continuing his poor run at golf's majors, and reacted on Wednesday by dismissing respected coach Peter Cowen and bag-man Michael Waite.

The Nottinghamshire based golfer is looking to arrest a slide which has seen him slip from a world number one to four. Westwood spent 22 weeks at the top of the rankings, but has not won a tournament since June's Nordea Masters.

Cowen coaches a number of players on the tour, including Graeme McDowell, who finished 11th at Kiawah, and Louis Oosthuizen, who ended 21st, and Westwood appears to have grown unhappy at the amount of time he was able to spend with his coach.

"Lee is very structured about going to the gym, but not about practicing so when Graeme McDowell and Pete's other players are booking him, Lee is leaving it late and is having to work around them," Westwood's manager Chubby Chandler told the player's website.

"Pete was at Kiawah for two days with Graeme this week when Lee wanted to work with him, so it just wasn't working out.

"When you miss the cut after that, it gets even more frustrating, and that probably brought matters to a head," explained Chandler, who used to manage McDowell and currently manages Oosthuizen, alongside Westwood.

"Lee admits he needed to shake things up because he'd lost his focus and his enthusiasm a bit, because he wasn't getting the rewards for his long game."

"Lee needs to try something different with his chipping and putting,

"Lee's the sort who needs someone standing over him, making him hit chip after chip and telling him what he's doing wrong.

"It's not like he's got the yips or anything -- he just needs to improve his technique."

With FedEx Cup playoff the Barclays starting in a week's time, Westwood has moved quickly to put a new support team in place. Mike Kerr will temporarily take over as caddie, while a new coach is already working with Westwood.

"I won't say who it is, but it will become public next week, because he'll be working with Lee for a few days at the Barclays tournament," said Chandler.

"All I'll say is that it's not one of the usual suspects -- it's someone a bit different. It's an interesting choice."

The Barclays organisers have confirmed that Tiger Woods and new world number one Rory McIlroy will be paired together for the first two rounds at Bethpage. With a week left in the regular season, Woods and McIlroy are guaranteed to finish top of the FedEx Cup rankings, and will therefore be grouped together when the playoffs get underway in New York.

Two-time FedEx Cup winner Woods has also confirmed his appearance at the first three playoff tournaments. Along with an appearance at Bethpage, where he won the 2002 U.S. Open, Woods will play at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston and the BMW Championship at Carmel.