Sunday, September 28, 2008

WESTWOOD PLANNING LIMITED SCHEDULE

WESTWOOD PLANNING LIMITED SCHEDULE


Lee Westwood's trips to America are likely to be even less frequent next year.

But that has nothing to do with the "shameful" heckling he received at last week's Ryder Cup in Louisville.

The former European number one, now at The Belfry eyeing a successful defence of the Quinn Insurance British Masters title, may miss next February's Accenture World Match Play in Arizona.

"You could go to Tucson, get there on the Monday, practise on Tuesday and then fly home on Wednesday night having shot a 65 and a guy shooting 64 beats you," said Westwood.

In the last five stagings of the event he has gone out in the first round three times and in the second round twice.

"It doesn't really fit in with all the stuff I want to do around it," he added. "It messes up your schedule for the next couple of weeks as well with it being an eight-hour or seven-hour time change.

"At some point you just have to evaluate it. I was thinking about missing it this year but I ended up going."

That was because he played the US Tour event in Los Angeles the previous week, but that is not in his plans either for 2009.

In a pointed dig about how the World Golf Championships have all been taking place in the United States lately, Westwood, no longer a member of the US Tour, added: "I'll wait until they play the world events around the world!"

His only events in America could be the three majors and the other two world championships in Miami in March - "probably" he says on that one - and Akron in August.

Despite feeling "shattered" and "running on empty" yesterday, the 35-year-old added a 70 to his opening 68, but was kept waiting to discover if it gave him the lead going into the third round.

That was because of a three-hour fog delay at the start of the day. Not only did it hold up play, it also meant he missed his daughter Poppy being a scarecrow in a harvest festival.

When play was called off at 7.05pm, Westwood shared top spot with Jeev Milkha Singh. The Indian, one of three players to have a hole-in-one yesterday, had six holes to complete when he resumed this morning.

One behind were Scot Marc Warren, Spaniard Alejandro Canizares, Thai Thongchai Jaidee - all in the clubhouse - and Swede Alexander Noren, who still had four holes to go.

Meanwhile, the likes of Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh could be slightly upping their number of European Tour events next season so they can qualify for the year-ending Dubai World Championship, golf's richest event with a Ј5.4million prize fund plus a bonus pool for those at the top of the Order of Merit.

Asked if he thought the average tour player would resent their showing up to try to take the lion's share of the jackpot Westwood said: "The average player will just have to practise harder and get better."


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