Westwood feels good about Cape Town chances

England’s Lee Westwood is looking leaner, meaner and far more confident than he was at this stage last year as he heads into the SAA Open.

And he is hoping to re-establish himself further with a good performance in Cape Town at a tournament which opens a Ryder Cup year and launches the European Tour season at a place where Westwood enjoys his golf immensely.

Worksop‘s favourite son bounced back after starting 2003 on a low ebb, winning the Nelson Mandela Invitational and the BMW Open in Germantto sart looking like his old self.

Now, after a stint of instruction from golf guru David Leadbetter and some fitness work with Steve Hampson, the mild-mannered rugby fanatic is looking forward to a big year ahead.

Westwood describes his regime as playing a major part in the way he now looks and feels going into this European Tour-sanctioned event.

“Just after Christmas I started doing some gym work, working with Steve (Hampson), who has done work with Darren Clarke – although I am not trying to shift as much weight as Darren has lost,” he said.

“But I wanted to tone up a little bit and I have come out this year a little bit fitter than I have been – just trying to eat the right things and stuff like that.

“I also went to see David Leadbetter for three days and did a lot of work there. I probably hit about 2,000 balls.

“It was building on what we had done last year and introducing a few other things that we are going to work on this year.

“It is a continual process and we are not going to do anything dramatically different, but there are a few things that we are going to be working on – the shaping of my shots to give me a bit more distance, things like that.”

Westwood and the 155 other competitors who will be battling it out for the world’s second oldest Open title were greeted by gusty winds and inclement weather in their practice rounds today.

And they will be hoping that the infamous Cape Doctor – the wind which blows in these parts – lies low for the next four days.

Apart from Westwood, the major challengers look set to be rejuvenated Scot Colin Montgomerie, defending champion Trevor Immelmann, last week’s Open Championship qualifying winner James Kingston, and youngster Louis Oosthuizen.

There should be enough class in the field, however, to ensure that this will not simply be a runaway win for any player.

Westwood is certainly one of the danger men in the field, and he says his game took a turn for the good last year when he won the BMW Open in Munich.

“The moment it came right very quickly and in a dramatic way was in the BMW,” he added.

“The previous three weeks I had been playing all right but not feeling like I had been getting any breaks. The three weeks in America helped me considerably in areas like my short game and my putting.

“So I started to see a few shots that I recognised, chipping and putting was there.

“So in Germany I was able to get into the tournament right away with a 65 in the first round. The good thing about the tournament was when I did get into contention, I felt comfortable being in contention and coming down the stretch.

“I played the last nine holes in 30 and won the tournament by three shots.

“That was the pleasing part. The habit of winning was there even though I had been playing poorly.”