Lee Westwood shows Michael Stewart what he has to aspire to

By MARTIN DEMPSTER
Published on Tuesday 24 January 2012 04:02

MICHAEL Stewart, the rookie Scottish professional, has revealed how it only took playing nine holes with new stable-mate Lee Westwood to realise he needed to up his game and work even harder to make the grade in the paid ranks.

The duo, who are both now clients of Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler after Stewart was signed up by ISM when he turned professional following last year’s Walker Cup, played part of a practice round together at the Thailand Golf Championship in November. As it turned out, world No 2 Westwood was in sparkling form that week as he opened with rounds of 60 and 64 before going on to win by seven shots with a 22-under-par total.

“He is incredible, the top end of the spectrum, and in my eyes he’s the best,” said Stewart in promoting the Annodate Scottish Golf Awards in Glasgow on 23 March. “He works harder than anyone out there and I’ve changed the way I go about things now because of seeing him. “Lee feels every day that he’s getting better and I ask myself now at the end of every day could I have got better or done more than I did by hitting more balls. If the answer is ‘yes’, you feel you’ve lost something.”

Stewart, who is in Spain at the moment practising with Ross Kellett, the latest Scottish recruit to the professional ranks, is over a minor recurrence of a niggling wrist problem and is gearing up for the start of his Challenge Tour campaign. He’s hoping to secure eight starts on the second-tier circuit and is hoping to feed off Peter Uihlein, the former US Amateur champion who has also been signed up by Chandler over the past couple of months.

“I have a pro-am in Qatar in March, then ISM have set me up in Florida for two weeks,” said the 21-year-old former Scottish Amateur champion, who has just secured a double sponsorship boost with backing from Aberdeen Asset Management and Camargue Group. “I’m hoping to meet Peter out there and maybe get a couple of mini-tour events to warm up for my Challenge Tour campaign starting in May. In Peter, I’ve effectively got a friend who is the same age that I’ve played with before and can travel with.

“I’m been talking about the EuroPro Tour Q-School as a back up, but ultimately I want to get top ten on the Challenge Tour.”

Meanwhile, Stewart’s Walker Cup team-mate, James Byrne, is set to make his Asian Tour debut in next month’s Myanmar Open after securing his card at last week’s Qualfying School. “I’m delighted to have some where to play on,” said the 23-year-old, whose mother hails from Singapore. “I could have received some invites on the Challenge Tour but I didn’t want to go down that route where you play about seven events a year. I feel good enough to win on the Asian Tour.”

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