‘Humpty Dumpty’ Willett fights back to join front runners again
Englishman in share of second place in Turkey Rose sets pace to hold two-shot lead at halfway
From winning the Masters two years ago to being ranked 332nd in the world, it is clear that Danny Willett had a great fall. Yet after a 65 here at the Turkish Airlines Open, the Yorkshireman insisted he is no longer his sport’s version of “Humpty Dumpty” and that, yes, he is putting it all together again. The 31-year-old is on 10 under par in a tie for second, two shots behind halfway leader Justin Rose.
Even if it is a stretch to see Willett overhauling his countryman – who after a second successive 65 is seemingly on the way to what he calls “the double whammy” of a title defence and a return to world No1 – simply to witness his name near the top of the leaderboard is uplifting following his descent.
When Willett became the first Englishman in two decades to prevail at Augusta, he broke into the world’s top 10 and maintained this status for most of that season with top-three finishes at Wentworth and the Italian Open. But after a disastrous debut in the Ryder Cup, it all began to go wrong. By the next year, he was suffering crippling back pain and unsure of where to turn. In the event, he left coach Pete Cowen and switched to Sean Foley, Tiger Woods’s former swing guru, but after a desultory 2017, he began this season by making only one cut in his first nine events.
Yet through this gloom came a few rays of sunshine, with an eighth place at the Italian Open and sixth at the Irish Open. Willett has not enjoyed another top 10 since July but he kept the faith, certain that “we are going in the right direction”, and the fact that he does not need painkilling medication any more is his obvious validation.
“The body is in the best place it’s been in probably five or six years now and the game is going along with it and following that trend,” Willett said. “I can get up and have 16-hour days again. I am in the gym for an hour every morning, then hitting balls, then playing. My body is no longer knackered from just playing 18 holes. It was like Humpty Dumpty – every time I finished they had to put me back together, and I had to rest up and try to go again.”
Today Willett will be in the final group with two other Englishmen in Rose and Tom Lewis. The latter is a comeback kid in his own right, having lost his card two years ago and falling outside the top 600.
Lewis, who famously led the Open as an amateur in 2011, finally won again on the Tour last month and then finished 10th and fifth in his next two outings. Yesterday’s 63 – the lowest score of the week so far – was the latest confirmation of the 27-year-old’s wellbeing.
But Lewis knows, as does the 2016 champion Thorbjorn Olesen, who is also on 10 under following a 67, that Rose will be a tough rival to master, especially around this Regnum Carya layout.
The defending champion is a remarkable 25 under par for his past four rounds on this course and appears at the peak of his powers.
“Hey, even if golf was feeling easy now, I would never admit to that,” said Rose. “I’ve been burnt by this game many a time and you have to keep working hard. Yes, I’m on pace and playing well, but this is the kind of course you have to keep moving forward. Even par is not going to cut it.”