Winnings Ways: Westwood

By Matt Cooper Last updated: 26th November 2009

LEE WESTWOOD - DUBAI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER & RACE TO DUBAI CHAMPION

In the bag

Driver - PING Rapture V2
Fairway woods - PING G10
Hybrid - PING Rapture
Irons - PING S57
Wedges - PING Tour W
Putter - PING JAS Tess
Ball - Titleist ProV1

Hogan-esque

Ken Brown, the on-course commentator for the European Tour production team, was in no doubt that the Englishman was playing magnificently.

On Saturday evening he tweeted: "Walked with Lee Westwood for the first 3 rounds he has played some stunning golf ... his iron play has been Hogan like!"

The stats back this up - it wasn't just that he was ranked first for Greens in Regulation, his percentages were superb: he hit 91.7% of the 72 greens he took aim at, 7% more than second ranked Adam Scott.

In the final round he actually hit every single fairway and every single green - awesome stuff.

Stats magic

Westwood's long game has been good for years but sometimes the rest of his game is not so reliable.

But that wasn't the case last week.

In addition to ranking first for Greens in Regulation he out-performed the field for Scrambling, Sand Saves, Birdies and Par Breaking.

He was also fifth for Putting Average, seventh for Driving Accuracy and eighth for Driving Distance.

No panic

On his last outing in Hong Kong Westwood struggled on the greens, but he was able to stay calm about his problems.

First of all he accepted that the greens were tricky and that he lacked crucial local knowledge.

So he felt there was no need to panic.

"The last thing I want to be doing is changing my putting stroke in order to cope with these greens. There's just too much at stake in next week's last Race to Dubai event to be making changes," he said.

He was proved right.

Secret strategy

All week the mischievous Westwood talked of a "secret strategy" and he took particular pleasure in baiting the Mail on Sunday's Peter Higgs with his reluctance to reveal it.

"There's nothing too secretive or illegal," he laughed, "but why talk about it? It's nobody's business but mine and Billy's until the end of the week."

"Because we'd all be interested to know what it is," countered Higgs.

"Well I'll tell you tomorrow night."

"Not now?" Higgs persisted.

"Definitely not."

"What difference does it make?" asked Higgs.

"Because people will copy and crib off it," Westwood said, figuratively putting his arm around his card to stop anyone looking. "It's like copying an exam. Did you do that Peter?"

Entertaining stuff and even better was to come on Sunday when Westwood finally revealed his confidential plan.

"The secret is," he grinned, "that there is no secret. I was making everyone think I had a secret when I didn't really."

Higgs of the Mail had gone home at this point (his deadline passed) so his response went unreported.

The only downside for Westwood is that the "secret plan" ploy won't work again.

Experience

If it was no surprise that Westwood was in complete control of his swing last week, it was a little more unforeseen that his mental game would be so dominant.

This is a man who was once a winning machine but who had lost the knack; a man who was then reborn with a double-win in 2007 only to suffer a series of what-could-have-beens in the following two years.

With all that doubt hanging around him, he was not the person you'd expect to be using non-existent secret strategies, rebuking Rory McIlroy for his own mental game inexperience, and remaining as composed and ruthless as he clearly was all week.

It begged the question - where had this mental game monster been lurking?

The answer was 'within' and Westwood's caddie Billy Foster was responsible for drawing it out.

"The big turnaround in confidence was catching Billy (his caddie Billy Foster) at the beach party on Tuesday," said Europe's number one.

"He'd probably just had enough Heineken to tell me what he really thought. He said I'd been paying too much attention to the other people around me.

"He said 'You've been out here 16 years, that's longer than all three of them put together (McIlroy, Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher were the only players left in the race to be number one) and you've won 30 times, which is more than them put together'.

"It's a terrible word to use because I hate it, but he said 'You've got to bully them'. That's why I've been confident all week."

Westwood has used mind coach Dr Karl Morris in the past and you can see his methods at work here - Westwood assumed the role of bully for the week.

You can also see how he has to consciously 'take on' the role (his more natural persona thinks it is a "terrible word" he "hates" to use), but if he can reassume the role in the majors, it may be the difference between finishing second and winning.

A year of two halves

For the first half of the season Westwood was actually a little bit off his game.

After a very consistent, but ultimately frustrating and winless, 2008 he finished third in the South African Open but then failed to make the top five for the next six months.

The turning point came in France in early July when he finished second to Martin Kaymer in the Open de France.

Including that performance his next 12 events reaped two wins, another three top three finishes and no less than ten top nine finishes.

In the 48 rounds of those tournaments he only failed to shoot 72 or better on five occasions.

Compare that to May alone - in just ten rounds in that month he topped 72 six times; it wasn't just that Westwood's good golf became so much better, in the last six months of the year his bad golf was better too.

Matt Cooper