A look at the 20 top players in the world of Golf today: Lee Westwood
Lee Westwood, is an athlete and a professional golfer, he was born on April 24th 1973, in Worksop, England. Westwood was the only child born to John Westwood, a math teacher who also took up the game at the same time as his son to encourage him,
and his wife Trish, a podiatrist.
John Westwood was a competitive man, and his son was naturally brought up to be the same way, his father in an interview said, “He and I used to have swimming races on holiday.”
He also recalled, “If it was diving, I might give him a mark occasionally and then he would try and beat that mark. We did press-ups against one another. When he was little we would roll cars to see who could get it closer to the edge of the table. We would
arm-wrestle. The competition was not vicious. When he won, he got rewarded.”
Westwood from an early age was very interested in sports, he was a talented athlete at school; he played cricket, rugby and football. Although golf seemed to hold his interest more than anything, he'd fallen in love with the sport at the age of 12 when he
stayed up late to watch Jack Nicklaus win the 1986 Masters.
At age 13 Westwood started playing golf, using a half set which his grandparents had bought for him. Although he started a little late relative to other golf professionals of the game, but within two years he claimed the Junior Championship of Nottinghamshire.
In 1993 after he had won the British Youth Championship he knew he was ready for the big stage and decided to turn professional. The Volvo Scandinavian Masters followed by the Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters in Japan in 1996 was Westwood's first and second
win.
In April 1998, Westwood won the Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans, and later in the year claimed two more victories in Europe. Westwood has won 21 events on the European Tour which is an amazing feat. He has also won tournaments in North America,
Africa, Asia and Australia.
Westwood’s most successful year was 2000, when he won a total of seven tournaments, resulting in the highest accolade of the game the #1 rank in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR)..
Following that year Westwood had to take a long break from the game, he wanted to attend to his wife (Laurae Coltart) for the birth of his first child, his son Samuel Bevan. Westwood married Laurae Coltart, the sister of Scottish Ryder Cup player Andrew
Coltart. They had two sons together, Samuel Bevan and Poppy Grace (2004).
After his break from the game Westwood started reconstructing his swing, under the coaching of David Leadbetter, who is a leading golf instructor from England. The reconstruction meant he was out of contention for future tournaments.
In 2007 Westwood returned to his winning ways when he won Valle Romano Open de Andalucia and the Quinn Direct British Masters, bring his overall tally to 18. Westwood finished the 2007 season with five top 10 finishes in the last five events.
At the 2010 Masters Westwood earned a career best second place, leading by one shot going into the final day before Phil Mickelson overtook him and became the champion. Later that year at the St. Jude Classic Westwood came through with his 2nd tour victory.
On 31 October 2010, Westwood became the World number one golfer, removing the long standing Tiger Woods from the #1 spot. Westwood kept the landmark for 17 weeks and was replaced by Martin Kaumer.
Westwood has been dogged by the perception that he can't close out big tournaments. In his career he has suffered some heavy heart breaking losses. He missed a 20 feet birdie at the US Open 2008, which would have landed him into the play-offs. Also at the
2010 Masters and the Players Championship Westwood lost his leads, and he was not able to finish the game for a win. Like any true athlete Westwood is a fighter and will keep on working on his game to regain the number one spot. His fans would hope that happens
sooner than later.
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