This report details Lee's performance in New Orleans to clinch his first USPGA event at only his 8th attempt...
By John Hopkins in Augusta after Lee won his 1st USPGA tour event
A QUESTION: Wwhich of Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood will be the first to win a Major Championship? The question is even more valid now that Westwood is accepting the laurel wreaths after winning his first tournament in the US last Sunday than it was last October, when Montgomerie had won the European Order of Merit for the fith successive time and Westwood had captured the season-ending Volvo Masters.
Two recent images spring to mind. The first is of seeing Monty walk in to the Spring sunshine of the Augusta National Golf Club at lunchtime on Sunday. Like an animal emerging from hibernation, he metaphorically shook himself and blinked. Some golfers fit in easily to their surroundings. Montgomerie, it has to be said, did not. He does not like Augusta, which he believes does not favour his style of play, and he looked as though he did not feel completely at home here.
He had said that he would not arrive for the Masters until yesterday. He is not one of the world's great practisers and usually does little more than one or perhaps two nine-hole sessions and one full 18. "Then I thought to myself, 'I missed the cut at Jacksonville [Player's Championship], I might as well get up to Augusta and begin practising.
The contrast between Monty, 34, the man who many thought would have won a Major by now but has not even won a Strokeplay tournament in the US, and Westwood, 24, who has progressed so quickly, was heightened by the fact that at the same time as the Scot was mooching around Georgia, Westwood was extending his one-stroke lead he had held overnight in the Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans in to victory by three-strokes.
Playing the brave, attacking golf for which he is becoming well known, Westwood appeared completely at ease and at home. He has played only 8 tournaments in the US but, at present,it is all going his way. To Americans, Westwood is the charmer among the leading Britons, whereas Nick Faldo can appear aloof and Montgomerie is not liked because of his outspokeness in the eve of the Ryder Cup last year. The 'Goon from Troon' attack on him in an American magazine was disgracefully rude but captured how some Americans feel about him.
By contrast, Westwood carries no such baggage. Over here he is percieved as young, brave and skillful; a young man to be admired for the way he is learning so fast and genuinely seems to be enjoying himself.
There are several reasons why Westwood is carrying all before him. First, he is an outstanding golfer. His technique is good, he hits the ball a long way, attacks the hole and putts well. His weakness is chipping and he is working hard to correct that. Men such as Johnny Miller, the former US Open and Open champion, were loud in their praises of Westwood on Sunday. "I can't see any weakness in him," Miller said.
The second is that Westwood is so level headed that those words do not seem adequate enough to describe him. His famil base is strong, with people who have given him the love and support he has needed and introduced the characteristics neccessary for a champion. Westwood talks warmly and without any semblance or embarressment of his grandmother, who bought him his first set of clubs and likes the occasional bet, and his grandfather.
His mother took up golf when she saw that her husband, John, and her son were becoming besotted with the game and, therfore, thought she had better join them in order to see them. Lee's father, a maths teacher, provided the competitive foil for the young Westwood, as well as being his best friend. "He taught me to be competitive," Lee said. "Whatever we did he tried to beat me, whether it was arm wrestling, kicking a football or golf. He would never let me win."
Yet all this would not be sufficient for a toung man to be regarded as the brightest prospect in Europe, a man now ranked fourteenth in the world, were it not for one more ingredient: Westwood likes the limelight and can cope with pressure. "The Ryder Cup was like playing the last hole of a tournament and needing a par to win," Westwood said. Significently, he thrived in it. Last year the name on everyone's lips was tiger Woods. Westwood is no Woods, but he outplayed the Americans in the Player's Championship two weeks ago, just as he did Ernie Els, another with whom, increasingly, his name is being bracketed. "Being compared with them has never bothered me," Westwood said. "I am closer to them this year than last year and I beat them both the last time we all played in the same event. That is the best I can do. They are No 1 and No 2 in the world. Where does that put me?"
So, in answer to the initial question, Westwood appearsto have overtaken Monty and, on present form, stands a better chance of winning at Augusta.
