Westwood rises to the Challenge
Sun City – Lee Westwood showed that he can still do the business at the age of 45 as he claimed his third Nedbank Golf Challenge title at Sun City yesterday. That he did it with a final-round 64 says plenty about the Englishman’s mental strength.
Westwood had begun the final day three strokes behind Sergio Garcia and one behind Louis Oosthuizen. He almost immediately made inroads with a superb approach shot to six feet, setting up an eagle on the second hole, for a share of the lead.
Westwood then claimed victory with a fabulous back nine, conquering the notoriously difficult Gary Player Country Club course with an amazing run of five birdies in seven holes from the 11th. In the face of such unrelenting brilliance, the challenges of Garcia and Oosthuizen faded away, with the Spaniard finishing second, three shots behind after shooting a 70, and the South African making a double-bogey at the last to post a 69 and finish third, a further stroke off the pace.
An emotional Westwood said: “It was great to win again on the European Tour after four years... at 45 years old you’re never sure if you’ll taste victory and you don’t know how long you will go on.
“But today showed I’ve still got it mentally, it was a great performance. I put the pressure on, they had to try and make birdies and they ended up making mistakes, that’s what sport is all about.
“I was three behind and I knew I had to make a fast start and I eagled two. On the back nine I just stuck to my game-plan and it was one of the best shots of my career for the birdie on 17 – a seven-iron from 185 yards to 10 feet.
“Under pressure, I was able to turn the screw on my opponents.”
Westwood was adding to his back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011 at Sun City.
Oosthuizen was leading after 14 holes. But a tricky downhill putt from the fringe on the 15th saw the ball run 10 feet past the hole and he could not make the par putt.
Garcia bogied the first hole after bunker trouble, but picked up three birdies, including nearly getting a hole-in-one on the 12th.