GOLF: PHILIP REIDgets the views of world number one Lee Westwood who is looking to win the PGA for the first time
ERNIE ELS was a tad irked when a number of players dared to criticise his re-design of the West Course here a year ago. Guess what? The critics – among them world number one Lee Westwood – have had their way, with changes including a lowering of the 18th green to encourage more players to go for the putting surface on the par five in two.
“The course has changed, characteristics of the course have changed over the last two or three years. It’s not the course it was in 2006 or 2007, it plays a lot differently. I think Ernie was given a mandate to make the course tougher and he has achieved that,” remarked Westwood, still seeking a first win in the European Tour’s flagship tournament.
This will be his 18th attempt in a mixed bag of efforts which includes a runner-up finish back in 2000 along with a run of four consecutive missed cuts from 2001 to 2004.
He added: “Obviously, it was well documented that I criticised the eighth and the 18th greens and he’s changed those. The eighth was maybe a little severe. And the 18th, you know, everybody likes to see somebody having a chance to make an eagle to win or having to be aggressive (with the approach). Making the target bigger will encourage that.”
And, while Westwood took considerable flak for not including the recent Players Championship, the oft-mooted unofficial “fifth major”, on his schedule, the Englishman defiantly wondered yesterday why more Americans don’t come in the opposite direction to play in what he termed, “our showpiece event of the year. It would be nice to see a few of the younger Americans come over to support the event . . . it’s a massive tournament, (with) lots of money, a prestigious title and loads of world ranking points.”
Westwood has never taken the blinkered view in terms of globetrotting.
“I’ve tried to play everywhere. I understand that they have got some big tournaments in the States at this time of year, the Colonial and the Byron Nelson, but I think it is a world game now. You’ve got quality South Africans, two Major champions, a Northern Irishman and a German. That’s a pretty good spread.
“The game is global and you have to accept that and you have to travel around and test yourself in different places,” said Westwood, providing some response to those who criticised him missing Sawgrass.
In dealing with the lingering after-effects of bypassing Sawgrass, Westwood – who was denied an invite to the previous week’s Quail Hollow championship – explained: “I would like to play in the Players Championship but it is pretty much out of my hands.
“The rules over there dictated to me where I could play. It was just one of those things that’s gone now . . . I would like to play in the future.”
Perhaps Westwood’s argument is best backed-up by the presence here of all four reigning Major champions – Charl Schwartzel (US Masters), Graeme McDowell (US Open), Louis Oosthuizen (British Open) and Martin Kaymer (US PGA) – and six of the top seven ranked players in the world.
As Oosthuizen put it, “other than the four Majors, this is the next big one for Europe just as the Players is the next big one for the Americans. Just look at the trophy, all of the names on it. It’s one of those you work the whole year to get.”
