Westwood down, but not out

IT IS hard to imagine a player cracking a joke after finishing third, third and second in his last three majors but Lee Westwood managed it on Sunday night.

Runner-up to Phil Mickelson in The Masters at Augusta after leading at the end of the second and third rounds, Europe’s number one faced the press minutes later.

When one reporter mistakenly called him Phil, he replied quickly: “I’m Lee. Phil is coming in a minute, he’ll be wearing a green jacket!

“I shot 71, which is not a terrible score around Augusta when you’re in the lead,” he added. “Phil shot 67, which generally wins major championships when people are there or thereabouts going into the last round. He hit good shots when he needed to and the one at 13 was incredible, so Phil won that one fair and square.”

Mickelson, one ahead of KJ Choi after his birdie at the 12th, threaded a 207-yard six-iron off the pine straw, through a four-foot gap in the trees and over Rae’s Creek to four feet.

“It’s one of the few shots really that only Phil could pull off. I think most people would have just chipped that one out. But, you know, that’s what great players do. They pull off great shots at the right time. But I’ve not seen a better one around here – it was something special.”

Still Westwood kept it tense by making a matching birdie – Mickelson actually missed the small eagle putt – and after falling three behind by only parring the 15th he cut the gap with another birdie at the 17th. Once Mickelson hit his approach to the last to eight feet, however, it was virtually game over and the home favourite was fittingly the one to birdie the hole. Mickelson not only thinks Westwood can win a major soon, but wants him to.

“As I said to him, there’s nothing I can say – I’ve been in that position and it sucks,” said the 39-year-old American, who had no fewer than 17 top 10 finishes before he grabbed the first of his four majors at Augusta in 2004.

“But I also told him he is playing some of the best golf of anybody in the world. He’s an incredible player and I pull for him and I want him to win his first major soon because he is that kind of talent, that type of player and a quality guy.”

It is Westwood’s bad luck that he had to duel that week with the world number one on one of his favourite courses and that he found himself going head-to-head this weekend with the man now back as world number two on his favourite layout.

Turnberry was the one that maybe got away for Westwood, whose total of top 10 major finishes over the last 13 years stands at nine.

June’s US Open at Pebble Beach will be his 50th. He was fifth there in 2000 – 17 strokes behind Woods, whose 15-shot victory over Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez is the all-time major record.

Mickelson was ‘only’ 16th then, but he is a three-time winner of the Pebble Beach Pro-am on the US Tour and so it would be no surprise to see him complete the second leg of what is now a Grand Slam bid.

Westwood had been level with Ian Poulter at halfway and leader by one entering Sunday, but he was hoping for better than 71. If he had gone two better he would have become the first player in Masters history to have four sub-70 rounds – but it still would not have been enough.

“The closer I get to winning these major championships, the more I want the next one to come around. And obviously when you’ve come close there’s a tinge of disappointment, but once that’s passed I can walk away with a lot of positive thoughts and memories from this Masters.

“If you asked me at the start of the year to rate which of the first three majors this year suited me (St Andrews hosts The Open in July), I would probably put the Masters last.

“So to finish second is obviously a massive boost and I’ve just got to keep doing the things I’m doing. I think my short game can still improve, even though it’s a lot lot better. It was a masterclass from Phil out there around the greens.”