The Open: Westwood glad he chose to ignore doctors' orders

FOR a man who should have been resting up for another month or so, Lee Westwood had a phenomenal week. Having come into the championship with a torn calf muscle in his right leg, he admitted last Monday that doctors had advised six to eight weeks' rest.

Yesterday, after a two-under-par 70 gave him a four-round total of 279 and second place behind Louis Oosthuizen, he was delighted to have ignored medical advice and kept on playing.

Westwood insisted that the injury had not held him back at all, but he did admit that "lying down for a month would be nice". And, while he will not dwell on what might have been, there has to be some room for speculation about how strongly he would have challenged the South African had he been fully fit.

It is at least arguable that a 100 per cent Westwood would have done a little more than par his first eight holes, and had he done so, he would have edged closer to Oosthuizen, rather than temporarily slipping back behind Martin Kaymer, Sean O'Hair and Henrik Stenson. But his round picked up from there, and although when he signed for that nine-under-par score his fellow-Englishman Paul Casey was still out on the course and in with a chance of claiming the second place in which he had begun the day, Westwood was not long afterwards confirmed as the runner-up.

It was the fourth time in the last five majors that he has been in the top three. Such a position normally provokes disappointment as much as pleasure, but on this occasion, at least when he was judging the final round in isolation, Westwood felt little regret. "Whether I won the tournament today was in the hands of other people," he said. "Louis has obviously played great and thoroughly deserves to win. So there's not even any real disappointment. If you get close and you lose, then there's disappointment, but I didn't even get within eight shots today.

"I played steadily. I played OK all week without really doing anything too special. I didn't make enough of the opportunities that my long game presented, really. Didn't putt well enough. My short game wasn't quite sharp enough.

"But all in all, delighted with the week. I keep putting myself into contention in these major championships and keep finishing in the top three. It's not really to be sniffed at and complained about.

"All I'm going to try and do (is] just try and keep going as I am. Keep working out, trying to improve little bits, and hopefully one of these chances will turn into a trophy."

Coming so close to a big triumph so often may provoke soul-searching in some, or at least a serious examination of their game in a quest for the little improvements that could make a difference. But Westwood is not really the soul-searching type, and he believes he has already examined his game often enough, and thoroughly enough, to be sure it is in the right shape. As a consequence, he remains confident that elusive first major may soon be within his grasp.

"I don't know if it's around the corner, but hopefully it's about three weeks away," he said, referring to the forthcoming US PGA. "I can't do much more than I'm already doing.

"I'm trying to improve all the time, and I'm sticking myself in contention. What is it now? Second at the Masters, 16th at the US Open and third at the PGA last year, and third at the Open and second or third at the Open . . . . I've lost count. But what else can you do other than get in contention and play well?"

What he could most obviously have done over the week to ensure he was slightly more on Oosthuizen's tail and a little further ahead of the rest of the pack was sink a few more makeable putts. Again, however, he refused to think about what might have been, or to lay the blame at just one part of his game.

"I haven't really counted," he said when asked how many of those putts he would count as agonising misses. "I wouldn't purely put it down to putting.

"Everybody thinks when the wind blows it affects the long game the most, but it doesn't. It tends to affect the putting the most. So it's difficult to remain [in] any kind of rhythm, because the putter is getting blown all over the place and the ball gets hit by the wind.

"I'm not reading too much into my putting this week. It's very difficult, and you're putting from a long way away most of the time. I missed, I would say, three or four over the week that I would expect to hole, but no more. Not anywhere near enough to get close to Louis."

And rather than dwell on what might have gone wrong in his own game, Westwood was happy to celebrate the success of the South African, and to admire the fortitude with which he clung to his winning position. "I know him to chat to and share a joke with, and I think it's probably myself and Darren [Clarke] that nicknamed him Shrek in the early days," he said when asked how well he knew the new champion. "So he's got us to thank for that. I've played with him a little bit: a couple of practice rounds, maybe. He flights the ball very well when it gets windy. I can see why he's doing well this week.

"He has good penetration on his iron shots and has obviously got a lot of bottle. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is probably the first time he's been in contention at a major championship, and he's tackled everything that it's thrown at him like an old pro."

Westwood, at 37 close to old-pro status himself, can only hope that he will comport himself in similar fashion if - or rather, as he believes, when - the same opportunity presents itself to him.