But Englishman still looking for first major Lee Westwood has 35 tournament victories as a professional, has been a key part of five Ryder Cup championships and even ended the long reign of Tiger Woods as the world’s top-ranked golfer last fall. It has been a brilliant career so far. But there is one thing Westwood needs to complete that sterling resume: a major championship.
The 38-year-old Englishman has come close many times since he made his first appearance in a North American major at Congressional Country Club when it hosted the U.S. Open in 1997. Back then, he was an immensely talented 24-year-old who entered that year with two tournament wins to his name — the Scandinavian Masters (Sweden) and the Taiheiyo Masters (Japan).
Westwood gets another chance this week when he and the best golfers in the world return to Congressional for this year’s U.S. Open. But this time he also enters as the favorite to earn his first major, according to Ladbrokes.com, which lists Westwood at 12-1 odds to win the tournament. Westwood is the No. 2 player in the world behind countryman Luke Donald, and his performance in the last 11 majors he has played shows why he’s the popular pick. Since the 2008 U.S. Open, Westwood has finished third in three different majors and was runner-up in 2010 at both the Masters and the British Open. So close, yet so far.
“It’s a fine balancing act and a fine line between when you do get really close to it becoming frustrated but still seeing the positives in it, the fact that you are getting close,” Westwood said. “And I feel like my game is good enough. And if I just do a few things differently at the right times, then it’ll be the difference between a second [place finish] and a win.”
That’s not unlike another elite player who fought a long battle to break through with a major. Sixteen times Phil Mickelson finished in the top 10 at a major, including seven in which he took second or third place, before finally winning the 2004 Masters at age 33. Mickelson has won three majors since (PGA 2005, Masters 2006, 2010).
“If you’re a good player, you’re going to have disappointments because you’re going to be in contention a lot, aren’t you?” Westwood said. “You’re going to have lots of chances to win major championships. So that’s all part and parcel of it. As golfers, if you have a successful year, we maybe win three times a year. That’s about 10 percent of the times you play. So you get used to not winning and being disappointed. So you learn — if you’re any good and mentally right — to try and take the positives out of anything.”
