This report seems silly after Lee's dissappointing performance in the weekend, but it is still funny in places....
By Nick Pitt in Augusta previewing his chances for the '98 Masters
IT DOES NOT seem possible that a young man of 24 who has joined the company of the best in the world in an activity that is fiendishly difficult and incredibly rewarding should be as straight forward and uncomplicated as Lee Westwood.
Yet trying to find what personal resources lie behind a record that is already exceptional, and that according to the best judges will soon be better still, is a little like trying to fathom the universe. Westwood has two types of answer to analytical questions: the short and long. The short answer is, "No." The long answer is, "No, not really."
Such responses are not obstructive or smart-aleck. They are the simple truth. For Westwood, the science of the game is hitting the ball long and far; the psychology of it is feeling confident and not losing your temper; and the point of it is to win and make money, in that order.
Absent are the complications and neuroses. He does not worry about losing or even playing badly. He does not discuss the matter of pronation of the left wrist. He never dreams about golf. He takes nothing for granted.
Here is the description of his game, the game that the experts so admire: "I hit it quite long and quite straight; my temperament's pretty good; my short game's all right; I'm normally a good putter but some days you hole them and some days you don't"
That may sound an ordinary game. In fact it is formidably strong because the key to success is not in hitting the bullseye, but in not missing the target entirely.
For Westwood, it works everywhere and on every type of course. On the European tour he has progressed in four years from one of the many to third in the order of merit. He has since wonin Sweden, Spain, Malaysia and Australia. In 32 days at the back end of 1997 he won three tournaments, and came second in another, winning more than 500,000 in Europe, Australia, Japan and the United States. If there were any doubts about his pedigree, that run dispelled them once and for all.
In the US, he has played nine events and has yet to miss a cut. "Golf courses are basically the same all over the world," he said. "If you hit it long and straight, then hit the green and hole the putt, you are going to score well."
His length of the tee, which is notable rather than prodigious, is his best insurance. In the first round of the Freeport Classic at English Turn on Thursday, his solid ballstriking largely went unrewarded since his putts mostly avoided the hole. But he reached every par-five bar one in two-shots, scored birdies on three of them and shot 69, three under par.
For most players in the field, it was a long and tricky course, a struggle for par. But not for Westwood. Dave Barr, one of his playing partnersand a US tour veteran of 21 campaigns, was impressed by the man from Worksop. "He hits the ball a long way and squeezes it well with the irons," he said. "A few times I saw he was hitting a certain cluband I thought,'He'd better hit this one absolutely pure or it's not going to reach.'" But it did.
If there is one course which Westwood admits to being different and demanding it is Augusta National. "It will frustrate you if you let it," he said. "It's a learning process there, which is why people don't win it first time out."
Westwood looked and learned for the first time last year. His opening hole a double-bogey, his opening round a 77 that he insists didn't bother him. Three days later, he had earned his right to return by finishing in the top 24. He returns not just as a qualifier, but as a contender.