McDowell and Westwood to play at Belfry

Lee Westwood, winner of the title by five shots after a brilliant closing 65 last year, and Graeme McDowell are the only two members of last week’s Ryder Cup team playing in the Quinn Insurance British Masters starting at The Belfry tomorrow.

“Shattered, quite flat,” Westwood said when asked how he was feeling. “But it helps I’m defending champion, it helps I like the golf course, it helps I’m playing an hour from where I live. And you’ve got the goal of trying to win the Order of Merit in my sights as well.”

He is currently in fourth place, but would close to around £80,000 (€101,000) behind leader Padraig Harrington by retaining the trophy.

McDowell, one of the success stories of last week with two wins and a half from four games on his debut, is in sixth spot and not out of the race either.

The Ulsterman was one of the quartet – Ian Poulter, Westwood and Harrington were the others – whose singles matches were still going on when America clinched victory on Sunday.

“We were very conscious that it might not get to the bottom matches,” he stated. “We thought we had a strong team on paper and when we saw the draw we were happy. Obviously it didn’t get to the last matches so it was the wrong line-up.”