BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP:LEE WESTWOOD, who has manoeuvred his way to a career-high third in the world rankings, has his sights set on over-taking the two players ahead of him – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson – but needs to look no further than some of the walking wounded around him for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to be aware that every step taken should be a careful one.
With Pádraig Harrington due to undergo keyhole surgery on his injured knee next Tuesday and Ian Poulter receiving treatment on a damaged neck, Westwood – the top-ranked player in the field for a championship he has yet to win – will be keen to keep a clean bill of health as he brings an impressive run of form into the European Tour’s €4.5 million flagship event which starts tomorrow and on to next month’s US Open at Pebble Beach.
Westwood, who has gone third-third-second in the last three majors taking in the British Open, the USPGA and the US Masters, believes that the two men ahead of him in the rankings are vulnerable.
“Both of them are obviously very capable of playing fantastic golf, but neither of them has shown the consistency that world number one and two would ordinarily show . . . but the world rankings normally reflect consistency and so I think the one and two spots are definitely there to be shot at. I’ll be trying to keep up my consistency over the next weeks and months, and get closer to those two.”
Of his near-misses in the majors over the past year, during which he ended the 2009 season as Europe’s number one, Westwood remarked: “There’s no magic wand you can just wave at it, it’s just about doing the right things at the range, at home; (it’s about) putting in the preparation and hopefully when the time comes to let it all out under pressure, it comes out good.
“My short game’s getting a lot better, my putting under pressure has been getting a lot better (and) I feel like there aren’t too many weaknesses in my game.”
With five of the world’s top 10 in action in the BMW PGA, there is a huge number of world-ranking points on offer to the winner this week.
Westwood, though, has often found the West Course a struggle in past PGAs and has only two top-10s in 16 appearances as well as suffering six missed cuts.
The course this time round is much tougher, with Ernie Els – the man responsible for its upgrading, including altering all 18 greens – expecting criticism from his fellow-pros for adding to its difficulty.
“Obviously you’re not going to please everybody. You’re going to have questions all over the place and it’s very easy to criticise something.
“I’m in the hot seat, the guy they can fire at, can throw arrows at. And if guys don’t like it, you can listen to what they don’t like. But this is our fifth major over here in Europe and it needs to have a bit of teeth,” said Els.
Poulter and, indeed Harrington, could have more to worry about than the golf course alone. Poulter, who missed a number of tournaments post-Augusta due to a knee injury he picked up playing basketball, hasn’t played Wentworth since 2007, but arrived nursing a neck injury.
“It’s been looked at and they can’t find any structural problem. It appears to go into spasm after sleep,” said his manager Paul Dunkley.
“A physio came and cricked it last night and that’s given Ian full movement but he will keep having it massaged.”
Harrington’s knee problem flared up after playing five-a-side football last Christmas and he has been advised to undergo surgery sooner rather than later.
I had an MRI scan a couple of months back and went back and had one last week as well. There is a lot of floating stuff around in there and they want to take it out.
“If I wait until the end of the year, the doctor feels it could cause some arthritic problems. If I can have it cleared up now, it reduces the chance. So, it’s just a precautionary thing. Plus, it’s my right knee, so I am not so dependent on it playing golf.”
I wouldnt be getting it done if I thought there was going to be a complication for the US Open, added Harrington.
