Westwood soars into lead

Back-to-form Lee Westwood made a spectacular albatross to crown one of the finest rounds of his life at Kingsbarns in Scotland today.

One behind leaders Darren Clarke and Michael Campbell playing the 558-yard ninth – his final hole – Westwood holed his four-iron approach for a brilliant 10 under par 62 and 16 under total.

Suddenly the 30-year-old led by two in the race for the massive £490,000 first prize and he was all smiles as he embraced manager Chubby Chandler – his partner in the celebrity pro-am event.

It was the second albatross of the day on the course, Dane Steen Tinning making one on the 516-yard third.

“I had a very solid day and then a little bit of luck at the end,” said Westwood.

How quickly things have changed for the former European No 1. From world No 4 he came close to crashing outside the top 250 in a nightmare slump which saw him fail to achieve a single top 10 finish in nearly two years.

Last month in Munich, however, he won the BMW International Open and his confidence has continued to soar.

Chandler commented: “The win was no fluke and I’d definitely back him to be in the Ryder Cup team again next year.

“Now he’s playing properly again I think you’d pick him even if he didn’t make the side automatically.”

First target is the top five finish this Sunday which could propel Westwood into next week’s American Express world championship in Atlanta.

The 30-year-old has to be in Europe’s top 20 or the world’s top 50. He is currently 31st on the former and 111th on the latter.

Chandler believes that Westwood is actually a better player now than he was when he was winning “every week” and is poised to get even better.

He was not sure he would be saying that a year ago.

“I had my moments of doubt when his attitude was not right,” he said.

“There was no direction and it was difficult to get the enthusiasm. We were going round in circles and it was embarrassing for him to talk about it.

“We decided that the best thing was to go to somebody and stick with them. It was either going to be David Leadbetter or Butch Harmon and we chose ’Lead’.

“It’s worked great and I think he will come out a better player. He’s already hitting shots he didn’t have before.”

Stablemate Clarke still had four holes to play at Kingsbarns, while Campbell was in with a 66 there.

Three behind in joint fourth spot were Ernie Els – six under for 12 holes at Kingsbarns – and his fellow South African Richard Sterne, who produced a superb 65 at Carnoustie.

Meanwhile, Colin Montgomerie was making a brave bid to make the cut, which this week is made after three rounds and only to the top 60 because of the celebrity pro-am format.

Montgomerie began the day 129th, but charged to joint 72nd with six birdies and probably needed two more over the closing seven holes.