Lee Westwood ready for the Nedbank Golf Challenge
The Nedbank Golf Challenge will start tomorrow in Sun City, South Africa. This amazing invitational challenge set out for twelve world-class golfers will be a thrilling one to follow. With $1.25 million in prize money going to
the winner, and $660,000 going to the runner up, the participants must definitely be hoping to be in their best form for the challenge. Most exciting of all: this year’s challenge features a world number one golfer for the first time in 12 years. Lee Westwood
will be the first world number one to play the challenge since Tiger Woods lost a playoff to Nick Price in 1998.
Westwood, who just last month dethroned Woods from the rank of world number one, is really looking forward to teeing off tomorrow. Westwood won the St. Jude Classic on the PGA Tour this year and finished second at the Masters and
British Open. Since 2009, he has had two second-place and two third-place finishes in the most prestigious tournaments in golf. Despite not yet having scored a breakthrough victory, Westwood was still crowned the world’s number one professional golfer on October
31st, and is being considered the favorite to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
Ending the five-year reign of golf legend Tiger Woods as world number one should be quite an accomplishment for 37-year-old Westwood. Phil Mickelson was at number two a few months back and had ample opportunities to become number
one but couldn’t avail them. Westwood, despite not even playing in many tournaments this year due to his injury, attained enough points to overtake Woods.
Westwood had a torn calf muscle which flared up during the French Open, forcing him to withdraw. He then took quite some time off from the sport in order to get back in shape for the grand Ryder Cup. During the Ryder Cup, he was
a crucial player for the winning European team. Due to his injury recurring right after the tournament, he only played the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. Taking some time off yet again, Westwood played the HSBC Championship
in China as number one, and was successful in keeping his position from Mickelson and Martin Kaymer.
Many would say that Woods lost his rank due to his own mistakes and poor performance rather than Westwood’s hard work. It is indeed plain that Woods has had by far the worst season of his career so far. However, there is no doubt
as to how hard Westwood worked to earn his place. The critics may be pointing out that he hasn’t won any major tournaments, but the points system works in his favor.
"It's a dream everyone has to say there is nobody better than me at the moment," Westwood said after taking over the number one ranking.
"Winning majors is something you learn to do," he said. "You get into position as often as possible and try not to make the same mistakes again."
Along with Lee Westwood, the line-up for tomorrow’s challenge is an interesting one. Defending champion Robert Allenby will be teeing off tomorrow, as well as three-time winner Ernie Els and 2004 champion Retief Goosen. Other players
include Padraig Harrington, Ross Fisher, Tim Clark, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Edoardo Molinari, and Justin Rose. Although all four major tournament winners are supposed to play in the Nedbank Golf Challenge, only British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen will be present
tomorrow.
With $250,000 to be awarded to the man that comes last, the Nedbank Golf Challenge will hopefully not disappoint any of the participating golf stars. The challenge will take place from December 2nd till December 5th
at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa.
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