A Tournament Too Far For Lee Westwood

LEE WESTWOOD has enjoyed a dream spell on the PGA Tour. He may not have managed to win a trophy and he may have failed to make the cut at the Honda Classic, but with his 48th birthday looming he is back in the top 20 in the world rankings and will be teeing it up for Europe in the Ryder Cup in September.

He went toe-to-toe with the big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, forcing DeChambeau to make a five-footer on the 72nd green for the trophy.

He then faced the strongest field of the season at The Players Championship and was back in the heat of the action again, taking another lead into the final round. Westwood ran in one last birdie on the 72nd hole and was a runner-up once more, this time to Justin Thomas.

Westwood played in the Honda, even though he knew that he was pushing himself to the limit by playing for a fourth consecutive week. The tournament has been good to him in the past, and the Englishman has established his U.S. base close by in South Florida. “It’s just not right to withdraw at such a late date,” he said.

In the first round he birdied the final two two holes to shoot a solid 70. He was in a good place. But on Friday he had nothing left. A lone birdie on his 17th hole of the day (the eighth) was set against three double bogeys.

"I ran out of gas about four days ago," he said.

Westwood hadn’t missed a cut since the RSM Classic in Georgia in November. And he will be back in action in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play.

He earned £2m with those two runner-up finishes and the 645 FedExCup points earned vaulted him to 22nd in the points standings. He also spent a couple of days playing Augusta National Golf Club with his son, Sam, who was on dad’s bag at The Honda.

His body was telling him it was time for a rest. “My body was telling me last Sunday at The Players,” Westwood said. “I didn’t swing it as well. I was starting to get tired. Three weeks in a row with not really a day off. So yeah, I am 48 in a month, and I can’t keep doing it like the 20-year-olds do it.”

But don't rule him out of the picture in Texas...