Life-changing victory puts Lewis in touch with the stars

In only his third start as a professional, the 20-year-old from Welwyn Garden captured the Portugal Masters with a closing round of 65 this weekend against a field which included Martin Kaymer and Padraig Harrington.

The 20-year-old from Welwyn Garden could hardly believe how his life had changed so much after a closing 65 gave him a two-stroke victory at Vilamoura.

In July, Lewis rocketed to prominence when he led The Open at Sandwich thanks to a first-round 65 that was the lowest score by an amateur in the championship’s 151-year history.

Tiger Woods was a previous holder of that record, so now Britain’s newest golf star has outdone the former world No 1 again.

It took Woods five events as a pro to achieve his first success, while Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo – Welwyn’s most famous sportsman – took 28 and Rory McIlroy won on his 38th European Tour start.

Incredibly, he is also now third in the Ryder Cup race and up from 234th to 53rd on this year’s money list, while the win guarantees him a World Championship debut in Shanghai next month.

As well as earning him more than £375,000 and taking him from 621st to 166th in the world and to third spot in the Ryder Cup race, the victory means that, instead of facing a trip to the European Tour qualifying school in December, Lewis now has a two-year exemption and a place in next month’s World Championship in Shanghai to look forward to.

It is another success story for Lewis, who, along with Clarke, was a prize winner at Sandwich in July.

While the Ulsterman picked up the Claret Jug, Lewis received the silver medal as leading amateur, thanks in large measure to an opening 65 which gave him a share of the lead and a day in the spotlight at Sandwich.

“Darren sent a text and said he was pleased for me, which was really good of him,” said Lewis. “I didn’t have loads of time to speak to him at The Open, but hopefully I’ll get to know him over the coming years.

“I know a lot of others [Lee Westwood included] tweeted about me as well. It’s really nice of them to show interest.”

Clarke is not the only one to have been taken aback by Lewis’ progress.

“Even prior to this impressive win, the level of interest in Tom was remarkable and that has just significantly increased,” said Guy Kinnings, co-managing director at the golf division of International Management Golf.

“It is always interesting to see how successful amateurs fare when they turn professional. In my 20 years in golf management at IMG, few players have made quite such an emphatic entry on to the professional stage as Tom did yesterday.

“He has always had a great team behind him and we just wanted to make the transition to the pro ranks as easy as possible and give him the chance to play at the highest level. He has grasped that opportunity with both hands.”

Although the pressure of gaining a Tour card is off, Lewis is still playing at this week’s Castello Masters in Spain rather than celebrating and, after a week off, will then head to the WGC-HSBC Champions in China and the Barclays Singapore Open.

“It would be nice to finish high up again and then, next year, hopefully I’ll get a win early and move on from there,” he added.

“I’ve not really thought about the money yet, but my phone bill’s going to be pretty big so paying that is probably where the first part of the cheque is going.”

Lewis birdied five of the last seven holes at Oceanico Victoria to charge through from seventh place to a two-shot win over Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello.

It was a remarkable turnaround, with joint leaders Peter Hanson, Felipe Aguilar and Christian Nilsson all going in water at least once over the closing stretch.

“It would be nice to watch it at some point,” added Lewis.

“I don’t think I’ll get the time as yet, but maybe in a few weeks’ time I will see what happened.”