Westwood’s hot on trail of Dodt
LEE WESTWOOD produced golf worthy of the late Seve Ballesteros to stay in contention to win the BMW PGA Championship at the 24th attempt. He carded PHIL GIRVAN a third round of 72 to lie three shots off the lead held by Australian Andrew Dodt.
After 14 holes at windswept Wentworth, Westwood had hit just one green in regulation and was three over par. But the ex-world No.1 then parred the difficult 15th and birdied the last three holes.
The Ryder Cup veteran, who has twice finished runner-up in the European Tour’s £5.4million flagship event, needed just 23 putts and earned some high praise from caddie Billy Foster.
Westwood, 44, said: “Billy said he had not seen an exhibition of short game and putting like that since he worked for Seve 25 years ago.
“After 14 holes I hadn’t had a birdie putt and I was just grinding, trying to get up and down when I missed the green, which was pretty often.
“It felt odd and nice in a way. I had gone through the confused and slightly angry stage and was just laughing, wondering who this was chipping and putting.
“I’ve worked hard on my short game and maybe it has finally clicked.
“I feel like I have all the shots. I’m just enjoying playing golf at the moment and, as one of the oldest guys out here, being able to compete.”
The last four groups were a combined 17 over par as halfway leaders Thomas Pieters, Scott Jamieson and Francesco Molinari shot 78, 76 and 74 respectively.
But Dodt defied the conditions with a 68 to finish on eight under par, a shot ahead of South African Branden Grace.
Westwood and Molinari were two strokes further back with Open champion Henrik Stenson, Ireland’s Shane Lowry and Japan’s Hideto Tanihara on four under.
Tanihara’s 67 was the lowest score of the day and lifted him 32 places up the leaderboard.