GOLF:THE SPECTRE of injury returned yesterday for Lee Westwood, forcing the world number two to consider withdrawing from the Dunhill Links Championship and putting his clubs away for the rest of the season.
The Englishman, who would become the world number one with a victory or a second-place finish at St Andrews on Sunday, shot an opening-round 70, two under par, at Kingsbarns and retired immediately to the European Tour’s physiotherapy van for treatment after a recurrence of the calf injury that almost cost him his place in Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team.
This is Westwood’s first competitive individual event since the Bridgestone Invitational at Akron in August, when he pulled out after the opening round. He then spent six weeks rehabilitating and only just made it back to fitness in time for Celtic Manor.
“I don’t want to be stupid, that’s the problem,” he said after yesterday’s round. “I made a mistake going to the Bridgestone. I was playing great before the injury and I’ve not had a chance to practise. That’s frustrating in itself. I’m just not able to work hard. I was advised not to flog myself last week and although I didn’t have to play five games it was four on a hilly, heavy course. Steve [McGregor, his personal trainer] said it wouldn’t be right for six months.
“I think Steve would like me to take a rest. If I keep coming back and it’s not right, and all I can do is rehab away from the course, I don’t think I’m being fair to myself, to be honest.”
Later it emerged he intends to play today, although it is likely he will then take a rest from the game for a month, which means he will be unable to tee it up at next week’s Portuguese Masters, a tournament he won last year.
Ironically, any such absence may help Westwood in his effort to replace Tiger Woods as the world’s leading player. The mathematics are complicated – it is ever thus when it comes to golf’s world rankings – but if he did not hit another ball in competition before the end of the month and if Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker do not play in the US, England would have its first world number one since Nick Faldo. Not that Westwood seemed overly concerned about that.
“All the biggest tournaments this year have gone,” he said. “I missed the fourth biggest tournament on my schedule, the PGA Championship, I got back for the Ryder Cup and didn’t let anybody down. But the most important thing is to be right physically for next year’s Masters.”
Westwood’s travails overshadowed the opening day of the Dunhill, which is played on three different courses and has a format that sees the pros paired with “celebrities”. But amid the hooks, the slices and the occasional good shot, there was some decent golf played, not least by Thomas Bjorn, a vice-captain for the victorious European team in Wales, who shot a 66, six under par, around the Old Course to share the lead with three others after the opening day.
This was a fine effort by the Dane, better than any of the nine members of the European team who are playing this week, and much better than his captain, Colin Montgomerie, who shot a level-par 72 at Kingsbarns.
Guardian Service
St Andrews, Carnoustie Kingsbarns, Fife, Scotland (Bri Irl unless stated, par 72)
St Andrews Course – 66 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Thomas Bjorn (Den); 67 Danny Willett, Kenneth Ferrie; 68 Richard Bland, Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Alan McLean, Paul Waring, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg), Graeme Storm, Stephen Dodd, Jamie Donaldson, Charl Coetzee (Rsa); 69 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Marcel Siem (Ger), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Gary Boyd, David McKenzie (Aus), Stephen Gallacher, Shane Lowry, Pablo Martin (Spa); 70 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Robert Rock, Marc Warren, Ariel Canete (Arg), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Johan Edfors (Swe), Ross McGowan, Thomas Levet (Fra); 71 Jamie Elson, Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Paul Lawrie, Oskar Henningsson (Swe), Steven O’Hara, Julien Quesne (Fra); 72 Martin Wiegele (Aut), Gary Lockerbie, Marco Ruiz (Par), Andrew Butterfield, Richard McEvoy, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Mark Brown (Nzl), Oliver Fisher; 73 David Drysdale, Gary Murphy, Marcus Both (Aus), Michael Jonzon (Swe), James Morrison, Gregory Havret (Fra), Trevor Fisher Jnr (Rsa); 74 Jeppe Huldahl (Den); 75 Mark Foster; 76 Peter Whiteford, Josh Geary (Nzl); 77 Keir McNicoll
Carnoustie Course – 66 Maarten Lafeber (Ned); 67 Tim Wilkinson (Nzl); 68 Richard Finch; 69 Anthony Kang (USA), Richie Ramsay, Thomas Aiken (Rsa), James Kingston (Rsa), David Dixon, David Lynn, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra); 70 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Phillip Price, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Matthew Griffin (Aus); 71 Anders Hansen (Den), Richard Green (Aus), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), James Kamte (Rsa); 72 Hennie Otto (Rsa), Gareth Maybin, Benn Barham, Soren Hansen (Den), Jason Norris (Aus), Alexander Noren (Swe), Rick Kulacz (Aus), Markus Brier (Aut), Phillip Archer, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa); 73 Sam Hutsby, Anthony Wall, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Scott
Strange (Aus), Tano Goya (Arg), Bradley Dredge; 74 Michael Campbell (Nzl), Sam Little, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Dave Horsey, Peter O’Malley (Aus); 75 Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), Matteo Manassero (Ita), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa); 76 Dustin Garza (USA), Niclas Fasth (Swe); 77 Brandon Pieters (Rsa), C Muniyappa (Ind), Leigh Mckechnie (Aus), Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind); 78 Pelle Edberg (Swe); 79 Francois Delamontagne (Fra); 80 Brett Rumford (Aus); 82 Jean Van de Velde (Fra) Kingsbarns Course – 66 Martin Laird; 67 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), John Parry, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par); 68 Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Robert Coles, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Alvaro Quiros (Spa); 69 Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Ross Fisher, David Howell, Andrew Coltart, Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Simon Dyson; 70 Steve Webster, Graeme McDowell, Ernie Els (Rsa), Peter Lawrie, Lee Westwood; 71 Rory McIlroy, Scott Hend (Aus), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Rhys Davies, Michael Hoey, Pádraig Harrington, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa); 72 Christian Cevaer (Fra), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Damien McGrane, Oliver Wilson, Colin Montgomerie, Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Nick Dougherty, Simon Khan; 73 Anton Haig (Rsa), Chris Wood, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Joost Luiten (Ned), George Coetzee (Rsa), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Craig Scott (Aus), Simon Thornton, Edoardo Molinari (Ita); 74 Peter Hanson (Swe), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Andrew Dodt (Aus), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Paul McGinley; 75 John Daly (USA), Alastair Forsyth, Ashley Hall (Aus); 76 Keith Horne (Rsa), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Darren Clarke; 77 Robert Karlsson (Swe)
