John O'Sullivanon the rekindling of Lee Westwood's on-off affair with his putter

Lee Westwood has a putter fetish. There can be no other explanation for keeping 162 of them in your house. It was 163, but a friend called round last week and borrowed one.

It's a common addiction, and he's probably representative of the lengths most professionals will go to in search of putting utopia, golf's adult fairytale.

It's more Grimm than Hans Christian Andersen as there is rarely a happy ending. It's an interminable tale of flirtation, dalliance, marriage, separation, divorce, reconciliation and, eh, divorce. It's important to enjoy the good times, because for most golfers the honeymoon can be all too brief before partners are replaced with the latest model.

Until last week Westwood hadn't won a tournament since 2003, but his victory in Andalusia was underpinned by a return to form on the greens. Highlighting how fickle a golfer's rapport can be with the blade, the putter he is wielding had been discarded after the first round of the US Masters with the vow it would never be used again.

Yesterday at Adare the Englishman's 20-foot par putt on the home green underlined a renewed confidence. His one-under-the-card 71 was an excellent effort on a difficult course.

His general game has been in rude health for some time, but the catalyst for a golfer who won a record-tying six tournaments in 2000 and three in 2003 to muscle his way back into the winner's enclosure has been holing putts - and not just those for birdie or eagle, as the 18th illustrated.

"You start seeing a few putts going in, it gets your confidence going and you feel like you can make a few more," Westwood said. "The one on the ninth, I saw the line straightaway. The greens are putting well out there, though they are a little slower than they were on Wednesday because they were expecting some strong winds. If you start it on line they run pretty true."

Mind you, there is a contingency plan if his current putter misbehaves; he has brought three others here.

While Westwood enthused about the greens, he was less enamoured of some of the recent alterations to the parkland layout: "I think it's a very good golf course. I wouldn't say it's one of my favourite golf courses in Ireland, but I am slightly swayed due to the fact they have lengthened it for the sake of it, which was a mistake, to be honest.

"The new tee on 11 was completely unnecessary. The new tee on nine is completely unnecessary.

"This is a golf course in Ireland, not in Florida."

Westwood supported his argument about the 11th by pointing out players would have been forced to hit a five-wood or rescue club to a small target from the back tee.

He also addressed the penal nature of the rough as he gently massaged the wrist he tweaked extricating himself on the ninth hole: "You miss a fairway by three yards and you can't see your ball. It's very thick so if you start missing greens it's easy to get on a bogey run.

"When you see a course like this, it makes most other weeks seem quite easy tee-to-green. Fortunately, it's rained so the fairways are playing a little bit wider.

"It tests you to the limit, tests your patience and you can get frustrated out there. When you get frustrated that's when you lose track of your score.

"But with a prestigious title like the Irish Open, it ought to be tough to win. You have to play well and hit a lot of greens.

"I like long par fours. I think it's good to have to hit the fairway and then have to hit a four-iron or five-iron, like I did on eight.

"Some holes should be difficult to par."