Close but no cigar, part deux

Lee Westwood is a fine golfer. For nigh on three decades he has been at the pinnacle of the game with 44 tournament victories to his name. Now in his forty seventh year, an age when diminishing length off the tee and a certain nervousness on the greens can erode confidence, the man from Worksop is enjoying an Indian summer. Last week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational held at Bay Hill in Florida he lost out by one stroke to golf’s current pantomime villain Bryson DeChambeau, And yesterday, at the Players Championship on the equally challenging Sawgrass golf links he was yet again pipped by a similar margin, this time to a resurgent Justin Thomas.

Writing at the weekend correspondent John Hopkins said that “whilst Westwood is not playing consistently as well as he ever has, from time to time he is playing was well as he ever has”. He went on “His swing may not be as fluent as Rory McIlroy’s or as powerful as Jon Rahm’s but it is amongst the most enduring in elite level golf. It repeats itself time after time and it does so under pressure.” There should be a caveat to that last sentence. It repeats itself for three rounds, it can’t quite manage it for four.

Last week at Bay Hill Westwood led by one shot going into the final round. Yet he shot a one over par 73 and lost by a stroke. And yesterday at the Players Championship he had a two shot lead, only to shoot par in the final round – the only player in the top ten not to break par – to lose by a stroke. Usually arrow straight off the tee, his driving suddenly became errant. Worse at the par five 16th and with a mid-iron in hand he proceeded to thin his approach into a tree from the middle of the fairway. What should have been a birdy turned into a scrambled par and with the treacherous par three 17th to follow, his tilt at victory was all but done. Nerves had once again done for him and it is this hidden flaw that sadly leaves him majorless.

Still, I should not be too churlish. By draining a twenty-foot putt at the last, to claim outright second place, he secured an extra $500,000. Not bad for a lad from the coalfields of Nottingham.

©Mark Brennand