Drawing from European momentum, Westwood will take on Tiger -- again
On a breezy, cool and overcast day that probably reminded him more of home, Westwood cobbled together a 1-under-par 70 Saturday at Torrey Pines Golf Course to put himself in the final pairing of the final round with No. 1 Tiger Woods.
At 2-under 211, Westwood was the clubhouse leader for about 15 minutes, until Woods, the two-time U.S. Open champ, chipped in for an unlikely birdie at the 17th and then drained a 30-foot eagle putt at 18 to sneak in ahead of him at 210. In fact, a television in the interview room at Torrey Pines' South Course showed the sequence of events that gave Woods the outright lead and dropped Westwood's odds of victory significantly.
Winner of 13 major titles, Woods has never lost a 54-hole lead in a grand slam tournament. He also has won six Buick Invitational titles at Torrey Pines, including the last four. Then add to that the fact that Tony Jacklin in 1970 was the last European to win the U.S. Open, and you see the predicament confronting the 35-year-old Brit.
"The last European to win it was an Englishman, I think, and before I was born," Westwood said. "That would be great to follow in his footsteps. And obviously the reason I practice every day is to get into this position and try and win major championships. I've won pretty much everything else there is to win, I think 29 tournaments now, so I proved I can win golf tournaments. But players are always rated on how many major championships they have won. So it's a good opportunity to try and win one of those."
Westwood didn't have many expectations coming into the event, where -- in eight previous appearances -- he had twice finished in the top 10, but the last had been a tie for fifth in 2000, finishing 17 strokes adrift of Woods' record pace. He'd withdrawn from the BMW European PGA Championship after contracting tonsillitis, and his only start since then was THE PLAYERS, where he missed the cut.
Currently ranked 20th in the world after slipping to as far down as 200th in 2002, Westwood will be the decided underdog, which is perfect given his mindset when he arrived on the West Coast.
"I didn't hit too many balls coming into this week. I had a couple of weeks off, which I don't usually do in a Major championship, one week off, but not two. I kept my expectations low, and it's sometimes easy to go out when you don't have any expectations; you just free wheel and play how you should play, one shot at a time," he said.
"I played very solidly, hit the ball more or less well all day," he added. "It wasn't close all the time, but I was picking spots to play to as you've got to do at the U.S. Open. And I putted pretty well as well."
Westwood, who has played arguably the steadiest golf of the tournament with just five bogeys on his card and nothing higher, is one of four European players in the top 11 in the standings heading into the final round hoping to end the U.S. Open drought. Miguel Angel Jimenez, Robert Karlsson and PLAYERS champion Sergio Garcia are the others.
"He's playing really good golf," said Jimenez, who has played with Westwood on the European Ryder Cup team and was paired with him Saturday. "I told him when we were finished to just stay focused. I think he can win. He's playing very well and not really making any mistakes."
Jimenez, who fired the low round of the tournament Friday, a 5-under 66, isn't playing badly, either. He'll begin the final round five behind Woods, tied for sixth place with four others, including another European upstart, Robert Karlsson of Sweden, with whom he will be playing on Sunday.
"It was a tough day ... a little up and down. It's not easy out there," said Jimenez, who came from four back to win the BMW European PGA Championship at Wentworth, England last month. "I need to be a little better off the tee. I still have a chance."
One might suspect that Karlsson, paired with Woods on Saturday, is too shell-shocked to make a move after watching the No. 1 player in the world ram home a series of long putts as well as a chip in from off the green. But that isn't the case. In fact, he think he might have keyed the Woods rally with his own 60-foot hole-out at the 11th for birdie.
"All of a sudden, a bit of freakish stuff started to happen," Karlsson said. "I managed to feed off that, and it was great because sometimes those things can be distracting. I'm really, really happy with the way I managed to stay in my own focus."
Clearly, European partisans will be focusing on Westwood, playing in the final pairing with Woods, the 12th time they have competed together in majors. He thinks he'll be ready to handle the moment and the pressure.
"Being in those positions before, I think. Five Ryder Cups and I've been in contention in majors before, so if you let it get to you, then you have problems," Westwood said. "But I'm a fairly calm person and fairly level headed, so I'll just stick to my own game plan and try to keep doing the things I'm doing."
And he'll try to draw on a good memory. In the 2000 DeutscheBank SAP Open in Hamburg, Germany, when he was playing a similarly splendid brand of golf, Westwood fired a final-round 8-under 64 to overtake the leader for one of his six titles that year.
The man who led was Tiger Woods.
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