Lee Westwood weighs his options to defend FedEx St. Jude Classic
Lee Westwood, the former world number one, is returning to TPC Southwind to defend his title at the FedEx St. Jude Classic he won last year. While Westwood has a record which can justify any of his victories anywhere in the world, there are many who still
claim that the runner-up, Robert Garrigus, threw away the coveted title which he almost had bagged till the final hole. Garrigus lost his three-shot lead on the 72nd hole and went into Playoff with the Englishman who romped to a big victory.
"It was an amazing finish, really," Westwood recalled. "Signing my card, I didn’t really think I had a chance and they said, ‘Don’t run off anywhere, you’d better hang on five minutes just to see what happens.’ It all unfolded. But that’s how golf is. Sometimes
you don’t win tournaments you think you should have won, and sometimes you win tournaments that some other guy should have won."
Garrigus went over to fell for a bogey on the Playoff hole and Westwood pulled in a birdie to bag the title, his second win on PGA after 12 years when he won in New Orleans.
Westwood celebrated his 38th birthday in style at the Indonesian Masters when he won the title on the Asian Tour. The Englishman is perhaps one of the only celebrated golfer who has played and won golf events throughout the world. His record on
the Asian Tour is one of the rarest for European golfers, who rarely turn their heads towards Tropical Asian courses. The Englishman went over to bag his second title for the season at the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea, thus retrieving the top slot in
the world rankings.
The 38-year-old has been performing consistently well all over the world and is coming out of a strong finish at the BMW PGA Championship where he lost to Luke Donald on the first Playoff hole.
"Confidence is high," Westwood said on the eve of his defense, "and I’m looking forward to playing this week the way I’ve been playing recently."
But many critics claim that Westwood’s PGA record has been more of a disappointment and out of his 35 professional wins, only two are on the PGA Tour. And there is the counter argument that Westwood rarely heads to US to play on the PGA Tour. Westwood regards
the TPC Southwind as a “demanding test” and hopes for an exciting challenge on the weekend.
Westwood is also weighing his chances for the upcoming second major of the season, the US Open at Congressional Country Club, scheduled to start from June 16. He lost his world number title to Donald when his approach drowned in the hazard on the Playoff
at BMW PGA Championship and is hoping to regain the same.
Both Englishmen have been on top of the world rankings without a major win in their career and are often teased with the same question every now and then. Westwood will be eager to win the major title for a change. He finished tied for 16th last
year at the Congressional.
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