Lee Westwood got off to a strong start at this year’s Open and believes links courses give older players a chance of upsetting the odds at Royal Portrush
Lee Westwood believes links courses give the oldies like him a real chance of Major success.
The English veteran, 52, shot a 69 to give him a platform to mount a shock challenge this weekend at Royal Portrush. The 500/1 outsider is just two off the lead after a strong start was only slightly dampened by two bogeys on the back nine.
Westwood is competing in his 90th Major and 28th Open but he has still yet to win one despite nine top-three finishes. Yet after this fine start, with wife Helen Storey on the bag, he is starting to believe he could join Phil Mickelson as a Major winner in his 50s and go one step further than Tom Watson, who at 58 came close to glory in 2009.
He said: “Links golf more than any golf gives you a chance when you’re our age, shall I say? There’s a bit more run on the ball. It’s not a golf course where it’s laid out where there’s a massive advantage to carrying a trap at, say, 310 yards, which I don’t have anymore.
“You’ve got to use the conditions and hold the ball up well in the side winds and cross-winds and be able to bring your ball flight down when you’re going into the wind.”
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Westwood was asked if seeing his name up high on the leaderboard gets the juices flowing and said: “Oh, yeah. Can’t beat seeing your name up there on a Thursday. We’ll talk again if it’s up there on Sunday. It’s nice to see it on the big yellow scoreboards, and it’s nice to walk down the 18th here. I’ve always said that for a British player, it’s the greatest walk in golf, especially if you’re in with a chance on Sunday.”
Westwood’s wife caddies for him when she’s available and this could be a big week for the married pair if he can stay in contention at the course where he finished fourth in 2019.
He said: “She caddied for me in the qualifying, and I prefer to have her caddieing for me whenever she can. We have a good record round here from finishing fourth six years ago. Yeah, it was an easy decision for me to make. Probably harder for her. She’d probably rather be at home riding a horse.”
It wasn’t such a good day for two-time winner and another veteran Padraig Harrington. The Irishman hit the first tee shot of the tournament but shot four over which will leave today as a battle to make the cut.
“I expected the nerves, I didn’t expect that [emotion],” Harrington said. “So I did have to adjust myself for that.”
