Golf Update: Lee Westwood to initiate the Ryder Cup
The world Number three player is amongst the first ones to tee off at the highly awaited Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup has started and is ongoing at Celtic Manor in Wales. The first couple from the European side, Lee Westwood and USPGA Champion Martin Kaymer
will be teeing off against Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson. Westwood, who is returning to competitive golf after a quite a rest should be feeling under pressure.
Lee Westwood suffered from a calf injury when his calf muscle tore and then flared up during the French Open. While competing in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, he was forced to retreat. Due to his injury, he couldn’t compete in the US PGA Championship
as well.
His injury had caused quite a concern for the team and the Captain Colin Montgomerie. There were a lot of doubts whether Lee would be fit for the Ryder Cup or not. Westwood, however, passed his fitness test with no difficulty and was fit and extremely excited
for the Ryder Cup. Such was his passion, that Monty chose him to be the one to initiate the grand event.
Westwood might just be the most Ryder experienced player in the team. Till now, he has won 16 and a half points in his previous Ryder Cups and has played in 29 matches since his first one in 1997. Even with so much expertise, Europe’s no 1 golfer hasn’t
appeared in an opening match ever before.
Montgomerie says that Westwood asked for the position and he was more than happy to give him that credit. He thinks that the first shot for Europe is an important one and hence Lee should be given that honour.
Lee Westwood will replace Phil Mickelson as World Number two when the World Rankings are announced on Monday. It is also a possibility that Westwood might just replace Tiger Woods at the number one spot. Lee will have the opportunity to replace Woods at
the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship taking place in Scotland next week. He will also compete in the Portugal Masters the following week. If the star player finishes in the top twenty in both the tournaments, he will surely become number one for the first
time in his career.
Tiger Woods has remained in this position for the last 277 weeks dating back to the week before the 2005 U.S Open at Pinehurst. Tiger Woods got divorced to wife Elin Nordegren in August and his personal problems have clearly strained his game. The Australian
Masters that took place in November was the last tournament Woods was victorious in. Woods didn’t make it to the final of the FedEx Cup series and didn’t automatically qualify for the Ryder Cup as well.
Being number two, Mickelson has been quite the player to replace Woods. Lefty has had twelve opportunities this year to become World Number one. However, Mickelson has finished in top twenty only twice out of his last seven tournaments since the U.S. Open.
In August, when Westwood was made to withdraw, he was at a higher world ranking average than where is Woods is now. However, Lee is lucky that even with his absence, Woods, Mickelson or Steve Stricker aren’t quite up to the mark where Westwood is.
“I’m quite fortunate in that regard,” Westwood said. “Especially with the tournaments that we have been playing and with so many world ranking points available, I expected to be further behind than I am. So I’m quite pleased with the position
I’m still in.”
Battling for the number one spot, Westwood, Woods and Mickelson will all take part in the HSBC Champions that starts November 4th in Shanghai.
As for the Ryder Cup, he agrees that all matches are difficult but he is very confident. Even though with heavy rain forecasts for the first day, the Ryder Fever is on the peak right now. Happy to have Kaymer as his partner, Lee is looking forward to lead
the team as soon as the Cup begins.
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