Lee Westwood declines PGA card as he eyes Tiger's world No 1 crown

TIM Finchem can ask as often as he wants. Lee Westwood won't be joining the PGA Tour, admitting holiday time with his children is more important than playing for $10million in the FedEx Cup.

On the day he helped Europe regain the Ryder Cup, the Englishman became the world No 2. He'll end Tiger Woods' five-year reign at No 1 if he wins or finishes, at worst, in a three-way tie for second in the Dunhill Links Championship.

But, while Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell have both decided to take up membership of the PGA Tour next year, Westwood has decided he can achieve his goals by staying at home. "I'm not taking my card up in the States," he said yesterday. "I decided about three weeks ago. I sat down with (manager] Chubby (Chandler], who said: 'Why would you take up membership in the States when you've been the most successful player in the world this year despite being injured and still have a great chance to go to world No 1?'"

Chandler also pointed to a couple of runner-up finishes in majors - in The Masters and Open Championship - as proof that Westwood's schedule was working perfectly well for him.

"I don't want to get into a situation where I have to play in events in America just to make up 15 (the minimum requirement on the PGA Tour)," added the player. "The FedEx Cup sits right in the middle of the kids' summer holidays and I like going on holiday with them for a couple of weeks.

"I don't want to be dictated by having to play, having to go to America to play in the FedEx Cup when it doesn't really mean that much to me. It doesn't mean enough to me, anyway.

"I think they (the PGA Tour) would like me to go and be a member there, but as of Monday evening I became an individual again and I do what's right for Lee Westwood now."

When Westwood won the Dunhill Links in 2003, he was on the way back after a worrying slump had taken him from fourth in the world rankings to outside the top 250. He hit rock bottom when rounds of 81 and 79 saw him tie for 136th in the 2003 Portuguese Open.

"If somebody had said then that I was going to have a chance to go to number one I would have treated it with a fair amount of scepticism," he admitted. "But golf is a strange thing. Why not? I went from fourth to 250th, why not be able to go the other way? I'm quite a positive thinker, but I'm obviously in a better position than I would have ever dreamt back there."

As a youngster, Westwood stood over putts at home in Worksop dreaming they were to win a major rather than to become the world No 1. But he admitted: "It would be nice. There aren't many people who can sit in a corner on their own and think, 'I'm the best in the world at what I do'."