Westwood back in the swing

LEE WESTWOOD, not good enough to compete in last week's Masters, takes another step on the comeback trail in the Algarve Portuguese Open starting here today.

In November 2000, Westwood finished second to Mike Weir in the American Express World Championship at Valderrama, a result that confirmed him as Europe's new number one after Colin Montgomerie's seven-year reign.

The English player also reached number four in the world, but in the last 20 months he has not managed a single top-10 finish and now the 29-year-old finds himself ranked down in 237th place.

As Canadian Weir continued to celebrate his first major victory yesterday Westwood was hard at work again and said: "I am where I should be. I think the world rankings are quite accurate.

"But I know my game will come back sooner or later I don't feel I am going round in circles any more."

There were signs at the Ryder Cup last September, when captain Sam Torrance paired him with Sergio Garcia, that Westwood was turning things around and while the results have yet to follow he is convinced the

changes he has been making with Florida-based coach David Leadbetter will pay dividends.

"I stay in touch with Dave on the computer and on the phone. For a while I didn't really realise how bad my swing had got, but I have a clear picture of what I'm trying to do now and it's a case of trusting it.

"I was spending so long on the range that I didn't have time to practise my short game and putting, but lately I've not been searching for things for three or four hours and on my day it feels better than in 1998."

That was the season in which Westwood won once in the United States, twice in Japan and four times in Europe, including a brilliant victory over Tiger Woods in Germany.

He was sixth at the Masters the following April, but did not even watch the Augusta action last weekend as Weir grabbed his first major title.

"I've been down here for a couple of weeks and the television where I've been staying didn't have BBC2 fortunately. I didn't miss it I didn't particularly want to watch."

Weir also went through last year without a top-10 finish, but Westwood sees no reason to draw inspiration from that.

"I was delighted for him, but I don't really look at other people," he said.

Not one of the European contingent in the Masters has flown to Faro and the leading player on view in world ranking terms is Welshman Bradley Dredge, currently 61st following an eight-stroke maiden tour victory in Madeira four weeks ago that included a record-equalling round of 60.

Compatriot Phillip Price is attempting to match another record three Portuguese Open victories. It is, in fact, the only tournament Price has ever won on the circuit.

Bristol's John E Morgan, who turned professional only 12 months ago and then earned himself cards for both Europe and America, plays after a seven-tournament stint in the States in which his best finish was 44th in the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta two weeks ago.

Morgan, an epileptic, briefly led there and also had a round of 63 in Tucson in February. Now he hopes to sustain a challenge in only the second European Tour start of his career and his first actually in Europe.