Lee Westwood looks for quality start to 2011

Quality not quantity has worked wonders for Lee Westwood and the world No 1 will be happy to keep it that way as he starts his 2011 campaign today.

Westwood, part of a field at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship which features all four of last season's major winners, is now in his 12th week as the greatest golfer on the planet. Yet in that time he has played only three tournaments.

Westwood was runner-up to Ryder Cup team-mate Francesco Molinari in Shanghai, third at the Dubai World Championship and then a runaway eight-stroke winner of the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa. The 37-year-old from Worksop has had six weeks off since then, but flew to the Middle East a week ago to "shake the rust off" and it will be a shock if there is a repeat of last year's missed cut on the course, his only one in the past 20 months.

"I'm just trying to continue where I left off last season," he said. Not that this event is his priority, of course. "I've got that feeling where it may be a good week, but I'm not putting any pressure on myself - I'm going out there with no expectations. I've got to try to get my preparation right for Augusta in April."

Last year's Masters winner, Phil Mickelson, is also competing in Abu Dhabi, the American making his first appearance since mid-November.

Meanwhile, world No 2 Tiger Woods will begin his 2011 season at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego next week.

Woods confirmed via his website that he has entered the tournament at Torrey Pines and sounded optimistic in remarks made yesterday on his Twitter feed.

He said: "I've been working hard on my game, it's game time hooah!"