COVER STORY | LEE WESTWOOD
Lee Westwood moved from England to Florida at the end of the 2012 season in order to prepare more efficiently for the majors
The
Nearly Man
Could 2014 be the year that Lee Westwood finally bags a major championship? Lewine Mair recounts the popular Englishman’s performances in the world’s biggest events and gives her verdict.
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quite believing him. By the same token, Westwood’s philosophising on the subject is no longer as convincing as it once was. It was in China a year or so ago, when he had to wait endless hours on an out-of-the-way tee during a Pro-Am, that he analysed his overall career as follows. “If I were standing here talking you today having won a major, I would probably give myself eight and a half out of ten. So how much should I knock off for not having played well in a specific week?” The answer, here, was that that no one would probably have wanted to knock anything off that
AFP
ou can almost see Lee Westwood rolling his eyes as he reads the early headlines in 2014. Every member of the British press will be asking if this will be the year when he finally shakes off one of the most pressureladen labels in golf – namely, ‘Best Player Never to Have Won a Major’. It is a title which used to belong to Colin Montgomerie. The Scot always made a valiant attempt to explain that he would not want to swap his seven successive European Tour Order of Merit titles for a lone major without anyone
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“If I were standing here talking you today having won a major, I would probably give myself eight and a half out of ten. So how much should I knock off for not having played well in a specific week?”
AFP
Westwood drives at the 2012 Masters Tournament (top). The Englishman led the 1999 edition of the event with nine holes to play but struggled coming home, finishing in a share of sixth. At Muirfield (opposite) last summer, Westwood lost his lead as Phil Mickelson closed with one of the greatest Sunday displays in recent memory to win the Claret Jug 46
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eight-and-a-half tally, particularly in an era when bagging a single major is relatively commonplace. Keegan Bradley, Stewart Cink, Darren Clarke, Jason Dufner, Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Lucas Glover, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Justin Rose, Charl Schwartzel, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, and YE Yang are among the active players who posses one. Yet, after his close call at the 2013 Open and a second disappointment at the subsequent US PGA championship at Oak Hill, Westwood, who will be 41 in April, had one of those moments when his inner feelings came to the fore. There may or may not have been an end-ofseason drink involved, but he dispatched a couple of Tweets which told everything about how much he really cares.
The fellow who, in the wake of Westwood’s closing 76 – out in 41 and back in 35 – at the US PGA, said that the golfer needed to learn how to putt, got a terse reply along the lines that it was probably more important that he should get a life. Then, in a follow-up memo, Westwood said he was “just sick” of the negative so-and-sos who kept having a go at him. Westwood, of course, had plenty of nearmisses in majors prior to last year. Back in 1999, his name was at the top of the leaderboard at the Masters heading into the final nine of the tournament. Then, alas, he started for home 5, 6, 4 (bogey, double-bogey, bogey) to finish with a 71 and an anticlimactic share of sixth place. Later, he would admit to feeling “positively nauseous” at the end of the experience. In 2008, he had missed a putt on the final green which would have earned him a play-off in the US Open while, in 2009, he was ahead with nine to play at The Open at Turnberry only to amass bogeys at the 15th, 16th and 18th to slip into a share of third place behind Stewart Cink and Tom Watson. Again, in 2010, he was leading the Masters by one going into the final round, only to post a 71 and lose out to Mickelson, who HKGOLFER.COM
closed with a 67. All of the above would have hurt but none would have quite the same impact on the player as what happened at the 2011 Open at Royal St George’s. That was the week when his closest golfing rival and friend, Darren Clarke, beat him to a maiden major. From the start of their professional days, the International Sports Management stable-mates had fed off each other, with one typical example of how they would set each other’s competitive juices flowing there for all to see at the 1999 European Open. That week, Clarke had a record 60 in the second round and was eight clear of his friend going into the last round. Westwood responded with a closing 66 to Clarke’s 75 to beat him by a single shot. How Clarke would have hated that day. Each had their highs and lows over the next few years but, when it came to the aforementioned 2011 Open, no one was mentioning Clarke. Other, that is, than Chubby Chandler, ISM’s founder. When the press had asked Chandler which of Westwood and Graeme McDowell he expected HKGOLFER.COM
to win, Chubby, simply because he did not want to stir up trouble between those two players, answered with an oblique, “Why not Darren?” Though Clarke had only finished 30th on the previous year’s Order of Merit, he felt entirely at ease in the angry squalls at Royal St George’s; they put him in mind of his amateur days at Portrush. Smiling through the tempest, he shook off Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson to take the title of his dreams. Westwood, meantime, finished in a share of 11th place. He would have been happy for Clarke but he would have been a saint not to have felt irked that Clarke had got there first. That he thought himself to be the better player of the two (Clarke, mind you, would have been equally convinced that he had the edge) can only have made things worse. Westwood moved to Florida at the end of the 2012 season because he felt his golf was less likely to stand still over the winter months and, when it came to Muirfield, it looked as if his latest drive was about to be rewarded. He putted beautifully over those impeccable greens and, with one round to play, he had a twoHK GOLFER・FEB 2014
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In Westwood’s favour is the fact that he has stopped bouncing from one coach to another – he is currently with Sean Foley – and that people’s expectations are not what they were.
AFP
With good friend and fellow ISM stable-mate Darren Clarke (top) after representing Europe at the 2004 Ryder Cup. Westwood would have been happy for Clarke’s 2011 Open Championship success, but irked that the Ulsterman got there first 48
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shot lead over Hunter Mahan and Tiger Woods. His 12-year-old son, Sam, had been following him every day and it was shaping to be a great story for the British press, not to mention one which would put paid to all the negative publicity surrounding Muirfield and its no-women policy. On the Saturday night, Westwood fielded all the questions you would have expected about past close calls. Similarly, the media wanted him to elaborate on his feelings going into the last round, given the experience he now had of being in contention in majors. “I’ll think about winning the Open championship tonight at some stage,” he began. “I don’t see anything wrong with that, picturing yourself holding the Claret Jug and seeing your name at the top of the leaderboard. When it comes to teeing off, I should be in the same frame of mind as I was today when I didn’t feel any pressure. I was nice and calm out there and in control of what I was doing. “I know what it takes to win a major now. It’s just a case of going out there tomorrow and having the confidence in my game, which I’ve got.” He said that he had never felt as comfortable at the top of a major leaderboard before suggesting that that was connected with turning 40. Since the number of times he could be up there in the future had to be limited, he felt it made sense to enjoy himself. “It’s where you want to be after all.” After his closing 75 he insisted he was not too disappointed, pointing to how he was a philosophical person, one who didn’t let anything get to him anymore. “Perhaps he should,” suggested Derek Lawrenson, writing in the Daily Mail the following day. “Perhaps he should have been gutted.” As those aforementioned Tweets would reveal, he was no different than anyone else would have been in his situation. He was ruffled to the core. Maybe that little explosion will have done him no harm. Though there is no getting away from the fact that 41 is hardly the optimum age for major hunting, it has to be remembered that his generation are fitter than their predecessors. Westwood has been working on a bit of weight-loss over the winter and also on his flexibility. Also in his favour is the fact that he has stopped bouncing from one coach to another – he is currently with Sean Foley – and that people’s expectations are not what they were. He would make for a hugely popular winner and, if and when he can get that first major under his belt, you would back him to handle the very different pressures attached to capturing a second. HKGOLFER.COM