Westwood hits a golden shot

Lee Westwood today won a kilo of gold worth approximately £7,500 (€10,785) for a hole-in-one during his final round in the Linde German Masters.

Westwood aced the 226-yard eighth hole at Gut Larchenhof with a four-iron in a front nine of 29 that had him on course to break the magical 60 barrier.

The former European number one also birdied the 10th to stand eight under for the day and needed five more birdies in eight holes to record the first-ever 59 on the European Tour.

But the 30-year-old could only manage two more and bogeyed the 17th and had to settle for a round of 63 and 17-under-par total of 271.

“I’m not sure I know what to do with it,” said Westwood after being presented with the gold bar, about the size of a chocolate bar, by Dr Horst Muller of tournament sponsors Dresdner Bank.

“I couldn’t see the ball go in from the tee but I said to my caddie I couldn’t hit it much better and from the crowd’s reaction we presumed it was in. It’s only my second on tour and second this year (he won a magnum of champagne in the British Masters in June).

“That put me eight under after 10 holes and I thought 59 might be possible. But 59 is a very low score, I was still five birdies short and I hit a couple of bad shots and just didn’t hit the iron shots close enough or 59 might have been on the cards.

“I did manage 59 this week with 29 on the front nine today and 30 on the back nine on Friday, but just didn’t manage to put it together.”