Westwood blames Azinger for crowd antics

Lee Westwood today blamed American captain Paul Azinger for the behaviour of a minority of the home crowd during Europe’s Ryder Cup defeat at Valhalla.

After the United States won by 16 1/2 points to 11 1/2, to reclaim the trophy for the first time since 1999, Westwood revealed he had been abused “from start to finish”.

The 34-year-old did not want to repeat what was shouted at him but did reveal one was a “particularly nasty reference to my mother” and that his parents had also been woken by a phone call at 4.30am on Sunday.

“They were trying to ring me but called the wrong hotel and got the wrong Westwood,” he added. “It really upset my dad’s preparations for walking around the course! I also got a phone call at 12:30am wishing me good luck.

“I must be taking on the Monty role. Let’s pick on the old guy with a few grey hairs!”

Westwood was able to see the funny side of an incident with one American fan dressed as a ghost, complete with mask from the film Scream, joking that he should have “set the five European fans dressed as leprechauns on him; I set two policemen on him instead!”.

But the former European number one feels Azinger’s attempts to make the crowd his team’s ’13th man’ by holding a “pep” rally in downtown Louisville and telling him they could cheer when European players missed putts, were to blame for the less savoury moments of crowd behaviour.

“That’s not the way golf’s played - that’s what separates golf from every other sport,” said Westwood, who won just one point from his four games despite equalling Arnold Palmer’s record of 12 consecutive unbeaten matches.

“It’s me and my set of clubs against the next guy and his set of clubs. Other than the wind and the rain there’s no outside agency should get involved.

“It’s only a minority but some people don’t know the difference between supporting their team and abusing the opposition.

“I thought it was a thing of the past. Other than the last day at Brookline (in 1999) the crowds were great there. In Detroit they were great, at other tournaments they are great.

“The crowds in Europe, if the US team miss a putt there’s silence and then a clap because we’ve won the hole, there’s not the clapping and cheering straight away.

“But they were incited to do that. Not by the players at all, I think it’s down to the captain. I have to say that. That’s not to take away from the great American performance, I think they outplayed us this week.”

Westwood’s singles match with Ben Curtis became irrelevant on Sunday when the home side won the five and a half points they needed for victory from the first eight matches.

That prompted criticism of captain Nick Faldo’s decision to leave the impressive Graeme McDowell, top scorer Ian Poulter, Westwood and double Open champion Padraig Harrington until the last four matches, but Westwood defended the tactic.

“The buck stops with the players not the captain,” said Westwood, who lost 2&1 to Curtis. “Nick asked us where we wanted to play today, we sent out strong players at the top, strong players at the bottom if it got that far.

“The team as a whole was pretty strong so we expected a few points through the middle as well, it just didn’t happen. They played great and holed the putts when it counted.

“It’s all ifs and buts. We had a lot of confidence in the guys going out top and if it got to a position where we could win we would need some experience down the bottom. That’s perfectly acceptable I think, I would have done the same.

“If you look at the first four matches we won two and a half points so we had wiped out the lead more or less, so what’s the problem? What more can you do than stick Sergio out first? Is he not strong enough?”