Westwood hails ‘phenomenal effort’

LEE WESTWOOD hailed a “phenomenal effort” from Europe’s Ryder Cup stars after their Celtic Manor masterclass left the United States in disarray.

Westwood and Luke Donald led from the front by inflicting the heaviest matchplay defeat of world number one Tiger Woods’ 14-year professional career.

That 6&5 foursomes drubbing set the tone as Europe went on to win four more matches and halved the other

“We played very well,” said Westwood, who has now beaten Woods six times from seven attempts in the Ryder Cup. Donald, meanwhile, preserved his 100% foursomes record.

“Tiger and Steve (Stricker) are considered their strongest pair, probably. But there are 12 main men in this team. It is strong all the way through, and that was a phenomenal effort.”

Europe led all six matches – two foursomes and a quartet of fourballs – going into yesterday’s action, which was delayed 15 minutes short of six hours by heavy rain.

And Westwood added: “We tried to impress on the people who hadn’t played in the Ryder Cup before that they (USA) were going to come out fast. We had to come out faster. It is very difficult when you have six blues on the scoreboard overnight. We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves – we knew we had to convert our chances.”

Donald said: “It was a nice place to be with all that blue on the board. It couldn’t get any better, so we had to hold on to those leads as much as we could.

“It was great to see Lee hole a 40-foot putt on 10. It’s a great day for European golf – a lead going into tomorrow is what you want.”

A sign had been put up on the European team door – “Team USA are going to come out fast. Make sure we are coming out faster” – and how they did.

On his record against Woods, the man he could replace as world number one in Scotland next Sunday, Westwood stated: “When you play Tiger you seem to up your game and it seems like you go out with nothing to lose. But that was great scoring foursomes.” They were five under par.