Westwood back on top of the world

William Johnson, Chief Sports Writer

• Last Updated: November 23. 2009 12:10AM UAE / November 22. 2009 8:10PM GMT

Westwood lifts the mace trophy at the Jumeirah Golf Estates. Kamran Jebreili / AP

DUBAI // Lee Westwood produced a golfing masterclass yesterday to take the coveted Dubai World Championship (DWC) by the throat and in doing so roar past his rival Rory McIlroy on the final leg of the new Race to Dubai.

Westwood’s illustrious double made him US$2.75million (Dh10.1m) richer and confirmed the view that a major championship which has eluded him, often narrowly and agonisingly, is within his reach next year if he maintains this form.

The Earth Course, which was designed by the former world No 1 golfer Greg Norman to provide a test for the cream of the European Tour’s players in their prestigious end-of-season showpiece, was defenceless to Westwood’s phenomenal ball striking.

A faultless course record score of 64 yesterday followed his equally unblemished round of 66 on Saturday to enable him to romp home six shots clear of the chasing pack and equal the Tour’s record winning margin.

His aggregate of 23-under par for the 72 holes was six adrift of Ernie Els’s remarkable score of 29-under in the 2003 Johnnie Walker Classic but the message from the delighted new Order of Merit champion was “don’t blame Earth”.

Westwood, sat beaming behind the two gleaming new trophies that have added a new dimension to the golfing world this year, said: “I think it would be unfair to the golf course to describe it as easy.

“It’s certainly not an easy finish when you are under pressure and I am glad I had a five-shot lead coming up the last.

“But this week was just as good as I can play. So I am going to shoot 23-under around most golf courses when I am playing as well as I can play.”

Westwood, who disclosed that he gained a great psychological advantage in the lucrative side issue of the Race to Dubai when he heard that the previous Race leader McIlroy had expressed relief after Thursday’s first round that he would not have to play alongside Westwood on Friday.

The Englishman, who won his only other Order of Merit title nine years ago in 2000, surged on after that unexpected injection of confidence and by the end of Saturday’s play had opened a five-shot margin between himself and the young Northern Irishman.

In the end, the gap between the top two on the money list was eight shots, with England’s Ross McGowan relegating McIlroy into third position in the tournament by adding a gritty 68 to his 66 of the previous two days to secure his biggest pay day to date.

McGowan’s runners-up cheque for $833,000 lifted him into the top 15 on the completed money list, his 12th position earning him a $243,000 share of the $7.5m bonus pool which allocated a bumper prize of $1.5m to Westwood.

McGowan concluded his impressive week’s work in Dubai attracting fulsome praise from Westwood, who had watched every shot over the last two days.

However, McGowan’s chances of adding to his other main career title of the Madrid Masters were virtually extinguished after six holes of the final round.

Starting off two strokes behind the overnight leader Westwood, he found himself six adrift with only 12 to play and sensed, like all those watching in an atmospheric gallery, that Westwood was in no mood to be caught.

So it proved. Reaching the turn in only 31 strokes, Westwood added three more birdies in the ensuing six holes and was then content to coast along the “Golden Mile” finishing stretch, which course designer Norman had predicted would have a big say in determining this honour.

On holing his final putt for a safe par which extended his bogey-free sequence to 46 holes, Westwood arched his back in celebration at the significance of the biggest of his 31 tournament successes.

It has been a remarkable renaissance of the man from Worksop in England who admitted to being in the depths of despair as his European ranking plummeted from No 1 at the turn of the century to an embarrassing place outside the top 250.

“I had just really experienced highs at that stage and then I went through a bit of a low. It was well documented and I didn’t play too good for a few years and dropped out of the top 200 in the world rankings.

“It has been a long way back, so I am delighted to be stood here enjoying the best day of my golfing career.”

Now the world is his oyster and if he plays like he has done over the past four days in 2010, nothing is beyond him in terms of adding even more silverware to his trophy cabinet.

wjohnson@thenational.ae