You never would have believed it six weeks ago, but Lee Westwood won yet again
on Sunday - and this time against one of the strongest fields in Europe all year.
Showing the nerve that never deserted him throughout his nightmare two-year
slump, Westwood held off the challenge of world number two Ernie Els to pocket
the £490,000 first prize at the dunhill links championship at St Andrews.
Westwood fell from fourth in the world to nearly 250th - and did not have a
single top-10 finish - but the 30-year-old from Worksop is riding high again.
It all changed round for him when he captured the BMW International Open in
Munich last month, and now the sky looks the limit again.
"The turnaround since the start of the year is just incredible really," said
Westwood after a closing 67 had given him a one-stroke win on the 21-under-par
mark of 267.
"I had one bogey in 72 holes and played as well as I have for a long time.
But I suppose it's like riding a bike - it comes back very quickly."
Whereas in Germany he came roaring through the field on the closing day, this
time he was the one being chased throughout the back nine.
Els was three behind with two to play. But star performer that he is, the
South African birdied the treacherous 17th with a 35-foot birdie and played a
brilliant pitch to four feet for another on the last.
Westwood, though, was not to be denied - parring both for the 26th win of his
professional career, and his biggest pay-day yet.
There was a suspicion it was going to be his tournament when he made the first
albatross of his life for a third-round 62 at Kingsbarns. But he had to use all
his experience - and that of caddie Pete Coleman, Bernhard Langer's former
bag-man - to come out on top.
It was Coleman who made the crucial decision of a five-iron for his second to
the 17th, knowing that there was room by the 18th tee for him still to make his
par. That is exactly what happened.
The win vaults him from 31st on the Order of Merit into the top six and also
into this week's American Express world championship in Atlanta.
Els, more than £500,000 clear now in the race to the Order of Merit crown,
scored rounds of 65 and 64 over the Old Course during the week. But he will
curse his bogey, double-bogey finish at Kingsbarns.
Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin finished third for the third time in five weeks,
earning a career-high £184,174, while Darren Clarke and Dutchman Maarten Lafeber
were joint fourth.
Clarke, second on the money list and with a chance to overtake Els, yet again
played well enough tee to green to win, but his putter let him down. His chance
was already virtually gone by the time he went in the 17th Road Hole bunker and
bogeyed.
Earlier David Howell, like Clarke a stablemate of Westwood, was joint second
playing the 17th, albeit three behind at the time, but ran up a triple-bogey
seven.
"I'm really gutted that I made such a stupid error at the 71st hole of the
week," he said. "I was trying to be positive about that hole after being
negative last year and making bogey."
His second also found the Road Bunker and after seeing his first attempt to
get out roll back in he had to play out sideways.
"I played the hole badly, but hindsight's a wonderful thing and it was just
classic St Andrews really."
Tommy Najakima made 13 on the hole in the 1978 Open and countless others have
come a cropper there. And many more will in the future.
Collated final-round scores and totals in the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, Scotland:
(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):
267 Lee Westwood 70 68 62 67 (£490,346)
268 Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 65 67 64 (£326,895)
270 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 68 64 69 (£184,174)
271 Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 68 69 67 67, Darren Clarke 67 68 66 70 (£135,923 each)
272 Nick O'Hern (Aus) 73 67 67 65, Brian Davis 74 70 66 62, David Howell 67 68 69 68, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 66 67 68, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 71 67 65 69
273 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 68 68 66 71
274 Peter Lawrie 67 68 71 68, Mark McNulty (Zim) 71 66 68 69, Phillip Price 68 71 66 69, Simon Yates 66 71 66 71
275 Charlie Wi (Kor) 71 70 66 68, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 66 69 68, Ian Poulter 69 69 68 69
276 Mark James 70 71 67 68, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 70 73 67 66, Julien Clement (Swi) 72 68 70 66, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 68 65 72, Paul Lawrie 69 67 68 72
277 John Bickerton 70 70 70 67, David Park 70 70 66 71, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 71 68 67, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 69 73 69 66, Kenneth Ferrie 71 72 68 66
278 Glen Day (USA) 69 73 67 69, Nick Price (Zim) 68 70 70 70, Richard Green (Aus) 74 72 64 68, Ian Woosnam 72 69 70 67, Nick Faldo 71 70 70 67
279 Padraig Harrington 72 69 67 71, Shaun Micheel (USA) 73 69 67 70, Anders Hansen (Den) 74 67 69 69, David Gleeson (Aus) 70 71 67 71, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 72 65 72, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 70 67 69, Nick Dougherty 70 70 67 72, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 69 69 69 72, Santiago Luna (Spa) 73 68 70 68
280 Raymond Russell 73 70 66 71, Gary Evans 70 69 68 73, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 71 73 66 70, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 70 70 70 70
281 Terry Price (Aus) 71 70 68 72, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 69 70 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 72 67 70 72, Simon Dyson 68 70 70 73, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 73 65 72, Fredrik Andersson (Swe) 72 72 66 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 69 70 66 76
282 Peter O'Malley (Aus) 69 70 70 73, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 68 68 68 78, Soren Hansen (Den) 66 71 74 71
283 Miles Tunnicliff 72 72 66 73, Steen Tinning (Den) 74 71 65 73, Mark Pilkington 72 71 67 73, Thomas Levet (Fra) 73 67 70 73
285 Andrew Coltart 73 69 69 74, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 69 72 70 74
286 Alastair Forsyth 69 72 70 75
Leading teams:
251 Sam Torrance and Daniel Torrance 67 63 59 62
254 Robert-Jan Derksen and Pieter Van Doorne 65 62 60 67, Ernie Els and Neels Els 68 62 63 61, Raphael Jacquelin and Guy East 64 62 63 65
255 Fredrik Jacobson and Rurik Gobel 66 62 62 65
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook