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Continuing to jettison people from his team, Mike Weir left on the weekend for the British Open with an almost revolutionary concept in his mind for the modern tour golfer: self-reliance.

Jeff Handler, Weir’s fitness trainer, is the latest to go. Weir called Handler before the Players Championship in May and said he wanted to go it alone when it came to working out. They’d been together for six years.

“I told Mike to do what he feels is right for himself,” Handler said last week from Cape Cod, Mass., where he was training some NHL players. “I told him, ‘You have Mike Weir, you don’t need any of us. We’re here to enhance your life, not to make trouble for you.’”

Weir had already left his former mental coach, Rich Gordin, and Stack & Tilt swing coaches Andy Plummer and Mike Bennett. Weir had left long-time coach Mike Wilson for them.

Earlier this year, Weir, 39, went back to Wilson. He sees him mostly for tune-ups. Wilson worked with Weir for a couple of days last week.

“I’m trying to be more self-reliant,” Weir said in a phone interview before leaving for Scotland. “It’s kind of what it’s like with Mike [Wilson] now.”

That’s also what it’s like for Weir on the mental side. Sports psychologist Bob Rotella has advised him to rely more on himself. It’s amazing that players have to hear this from others, but, as Handler said, PGA Tour players are fragile.

“There are so many people around on tour telling you stuff,” Weir said. “Cameras, technology. You think, ‘Oh, I could be better.’ Anybody can tell you anything, and a lot of it makes sense. But do you really need it?”

Weir has yet to recover his 2003 form, when he won the Masters and two other tournaments. He won the Nissan Open in Los Angeles the following year and didn’t win again until the Fry’s Electronics Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., in October of 2007. Weir was 21st in the world rankings at the end of 2008 and is 24th now.

Most recently, Weir began the U.S. Open with a six-under-par 64, but finished 70-74-74 to tie for 10th place. He tied for 48th spot at the AT&T National in Bethesda, Md., on July 5. Weir has four top-10 finishes in 15 tournaments this year, and was 22nd on the money list with $1,690,409 (U.S.) before this past weekend’s PGA Tour event.

That’s a good living. But Weir isn’t worried about money. He wants to contend regularly and to win again. That’s why he’s been getting into his own head rather than the heads of coaches.

“When a guy doesn’t feel he’s playing to his potential, he cleans the slate,” Handler said.

Handler had noticed things changing even before Weir called him in May.

“At Augusta, he only stretched for three days [without doing anything else],” Handler said. “At the tournament before, he basically did nothing. When a trainer starts seeing a player he’s working with not working out with him the way he’s meant him to, you know things are changing.”

“You learn from people you work with,” Weir said. “I have a good idea of what I need to do. I know how to work out. I still talk to Jeff, but I just felt I didn’t need him as much on the road. There aren’t many people who know more about training for golf than I do.”

Weir is moving into another phase of his career. He said he still wants to accomplish a lot in the game but that he doesn’t like being away from his wife and their two daughters as much as he is.

“I’ll need to prioritize my time,” he said. “You think of players like Fred [Couples] and Nick [Price]. They started to play 17 to 20 tournaments rather than 20 to 25. I’ve been thinking about this for the next few years.”

For Weir, it’s becoming all about listening to himself. Enough of the cavalcade of coaches.

“I had that discussion with myself, about getting too dependent on others. The last few years, I was working with a lot of people, though. I didn’t need Mike and Andy and Jeff to tell me when to practise or that I need to practise.

“It’s been great doing this,” Weir added. “I’ve figured out a lot of things about my swing. It’s been very healthy.”

The British Open starts Thursday. The RBC Canadian Open, Weir’s fifth major, follows. His results will speak to his decision to allow golf to again be what it once was for him: much more of an individual game.