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On that spring afternoon in the last century, a young-looking Lee Westwood was tucked into a corner of the clubhouse at Worksop Golf Club talking to a visitor. “I used to find the ninth and 12th holes really hard,” he said pointing out of the clubhouse window. “See that par-3 there, the third? That’s where I had my first hole-in-one. I used a driver, it was so long.” He paused. “This is home. That’s why I like it. I am still the same as I was. The only difference now is that I turn up in a Mercedes instead of a Ford Fiesta.
This was Westwood in 1998 when he was 24 and one of the best players in the world younger than age 30. He was the Black Prince of European golf, ready to take over as the most accomplished English golfer since Nick Faldo and at that time he was notable for being grounded and proud of his family and not minding who knew it. “Granddad used to say to me ‘work hard, play hard and keep your boots clean.’ That was when I played football. My Nan taught me old-time dancing. I think they thought it would help my balance. Mum’s great. She worked hard as a chiropodist, sometimes leaving the house at quarter-to-8 and not returning until 7 o’clock. I’ve got pretty good feet for a golfer.”
Just as there is a restlessness about Sergio García and an air of mystery about Dustin Johnson so there is a striking serenity about Westwood. Calmness surrounds him.
If you had sat down with Westwood in Florida last week you would have discovered he still espouses many of the same values as he did then even though nearly a quarter of a century has passed since and his home is not Worksop but Newcastle. He still pays tribute to his parents and remains as grounded as he was then and he is highly competitive, something his father instilled in him. “Dad never let me win anything whether it was golf, arm-wrestling or cards until I had earned it. He was very competitive and that’s where I get it from I suppose.”
Just as there is a restlessness about Sergio García and an air of mystery about Dustin Johnson so there is a striking serenity about Westwood. Calmness surrounds him. He is in a state of connubial bliss even though his marriage to Helen Storey, his fiancée, due to take place last year still has not occurred, having twice been postponed because of COVID-19.
“I’ve known him for 15 years and I’ve never seen him as happy,” Rory McIlroy said. “I think Helen has a big thing to do with it. He seems like he’s in a place in his life where he’s comfortable with whatever happens on the golf course, whether it’s good or bad. He seems like he’s playing without any pressure and he’s really enjoying it."
Perhaps this is why, one month short of his 48th birthday, an age when few of his peers are ever able to play at their best, the wonder of Westwood is that he regularly does so. He is beating men half his age because he is playing like a man half his age.
He turned pro just after Greg Norman was victorious in the 1993 Open. That year Colin Montgomerie won the first of his seven successive Orders of Merit, John Major was midway through his term as prime minister and Eddie Pepperell was 2 years old. Since then, Westwood has won Europe’s Order of Merit three times in three different decades and tournaments on the European circuit in each of the past four decades. He is a truly global competitor with victories on all six leading tours. He has played in 10 Ryder Cups, was a vice-captain at an 11th and will surely play in the next one in September.
Americans such as Tom Watson, who finished second in the 2009 Open when he was 59, and Ray Floyd, who played in the Ryder Cup when he was 51, have outlasted Westwood so far but among Europeans Westwood is alone in his longevity. Few European golfers have played to such a high standard for so long. By Westwood’s age Nick Faldo had won his last tournament, so had Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam.
It would be too much to ask to expect a man in his fifth decade to be performing repeatedly as well as he once did but from time to time he is. Look at his past eight days – second in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and second at the Players. His swing may not be as fluent as McIlroy’s, nor as powerful as Jon Rahm’s, nor as beautiful as Louis Oosthuizen’s but to do what he is doing now emphasises that it is among the most enduring in the world of high-level golf. It repeats itself time after time and it does so under pressure.
Not that Westwood appears to feel the pressure. Wherever he plays he is usually smiling and calm and undisturbed by any of the game’s bad breaks. He knows as well as anyone that golf isn’t meant to be a fair game and when his ball ends in a divot as it did on the fairway of the 72nd hole of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he accepts it without murmur. “That’s golf, isn’t it,” he says.
Why Westwood is something of a freak is not a secret. “Lee did not specialise in one sport when he was very young,” John Westwood, Lee’s father, said. “He played rugby, cricket, soccer and swam at school. He was a good middle-distance runner. He and I played table tennis. I was quite good at that. We encouraged him to be active and to look after his body and not put too much stress on it. His mother always made sure he had a good diet. She didn’t let him eat junk food.
“When Lee met Dr Steve McGregor 20 years ago he started to exercise properly. His body then was not symmetrical. It went up one side and down the other. He is naturally very strong. I’ve seen him lift 400 pounds. I am quite strong in my upper body too, but perhaps that’s because I had polio when I was young. Helen, who is a personal trainer, loves exercise and they work out in their gym every day.
“Lee’s genes have also played a part. At one time I had five living relatives whose ages totalled 450 and I arranged for a picture of them to appear on the front page of the Worksop Guardian. Of Lee’s grandparents on his mother’s side, one lived into their late 80s and one their 90s.”
All these attributes would amount to nothing if Westwood didn’t have one other – an insatiable appetite for golf. “He loves playing,” John Westwood said. “If he didn’t his heart would not be in it. He is very competitive but he knows how to relax. He works hard and plays as hard.”
It might be beyond him for Westwood to win a first major championship though if he did it this year aged 48 he would be the same age as Julius Boros when he won the PGA Championship in 1968. But with Lee John Westwood what you know is that you never know.
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