Westwood rolls back the years as Thomas triumphs
THEY moved the clocks forward in the USA over the weekend. Lee Westwood was hoping to turn them back with another vintage display on the final day of The Players Championship.
In the end, though, it was Justin Thomas who got his timing right at Sawgrass last night. At 27, and 20 years Westwood’s junior, Thomas put on his Sunday best to capture the PGA Tour’s flagship title.
“This was probably one of the best rounds of my life tee to green,” said an emotional Thomas after a closing fourunder 68 for a 14-under aggregate left him one ahead of the brave Westwood.
The Englishman, runner-up a week ago at Bay Hill and the leader at Sawgrass after three rounds, had to settle for second again with Bryson DeChambeau and Brian Harman sharing third.
It had been a captivating three rounds prior to yesterday’s ding-dong denouement and Westwood’s canny, composed approach over those 54-holes had reaped considerable rewards. With his fiancée, Helen, on the bag, there had been a cheery nonchalance about the Westwood assault which had been punctuated by the kind of beaming grins you’d tend to get in a Colgate advert.
Westwood hadn’t dropped a shot in 44 holes during a wonderful exhibition of tee-to-green golf and, when he knocked his approach to the first yesterday to within five-feet for an opening birdie to move three clear, it was business as usual.
And then things started to get decidedly hairy for both Westwood and DeChambeau. A drive into the trees from Westwood at the second led to a salvage operation which recovered a decent bogey in the circumstances before the fourth hole witnessed the kind of startling efforts you’d see at The Herald sports desk’s spring outing.
DeChambeau topped his drive and Westwood sliced his as they both made a right old hash of things. “Oh my gosh, what is going on?,” gasped DeChambeau on his way to a double bogey as he let out the kind of agonised wail that club golfers the world over shriek in regular abandon. Westwood, meanwhile, winkled out a bogey. It was reassuring stuff for us mere golfing mortals.
Over a front nine which featured more scrap than Steptoe’s yard, Westwood was still at the summit but the leaderboard was so congested, it was just about appearing on the travel and traffic updates on the local radio. Despite finding just three fairways and four greens in regulation, a birdie on the ninth for a one-over outward half left the Worksop man two clear of a sizeable chasing pack.
That was until Thomas upped the ante with considerable gusto, however. Playing in the match in front, his brace of birdies at nine and 10 had injected his campaign with vigour and a terrific eagle on the 11th propelled him to the front. It was a telling thrust and one that gathered even more driving momentum when the former US PGA champion birdied the 12th. Suddenly, Thomas was two ahead and it was Westwood who had to do the chasing. The Stadium Course was providing absorbing theatre.
What this game giveth, of course, it taketh away. Thomas, out of the blue, missed a seemingly routine short one for his par on the 14th and his lead was reduced to one. Even the pendulum didn’t know which way to swing.
Behind him, Westwood managed to capitalise on his rival’s lapse. He needed a bit of luck from those golfing gods, mind you. Westwood got a big break on the 14th and avoided the water before holing a tricky putt down the hill for a crucial birdie. The fist pump underlined the importance of the moment as Westwood moved level.
Parity was fleeting. Thomas two-putted from 50-feet on the 16th to seize control again. With so much going on, we’d almost forgotten about DeChambeau. He made sure he was still in the thick of it, though, with a swashbuckling eagle on the
16th as the tension mounted. Westwood scrambled a par there while, up ahead, Thomas walked off the treacherous 17th with a spring in his step after a nerveless three.
His bold, slightly hooky drive on the 18th, which fluttered its eye lashes with the water, led to nails being nibbled. It was that kind of day.
Thomas was just about home and dry, because behind him Westwood three-putted the 17th. It was a crushing blow. Thomas would have the crowning glory.
WHEN Kathleen Dawson could only hobble after a severe knee injury in 2018 marooned her on dry land for several months, it was the dream of competing at an Olympic Games that helped alleviate the physical pain and the mental anguish.
Rebuilt to be stronger and quicker than ever before, the 23-year-old from Kirkcaldy now knows her cherished ambition is tantalisingly close.
A hat-trick of victories at the British Swimming Invitational in Manchester underlined Dawson’s domestic supremacy in the backstroke, and laid down some markers with the all-important trials for Tokyo less than five weeks away.
If there is more of the same in London, she can plan her route towards Japan.
Victorious on Saturday in the 100 metres backstroke in 58.65 seconds, only Gemma Spofforth has gone quicker among British women. Her European record of 58.12, however, was set in 2009 during the era of now-banished non-textile suits. Dawson also enhanced her list of Scottish records yesterday over 200m, powering clear from lane one to clock 2:09.44.
Returning from a year without long-course competition, it
felt well within her revamped comfort zone, she said.
“I expected to go a 58, because I’ve been swimming so well at the time trials we’ve been having in Stirling,” she said.
There, her training partner Cassie Wild has been pushing her onward and stoking her fires, to mutual benefit. The 20-year-old was second over both distances with an Olympic qualifying standard now officially
credited to her with her time of 59.56 secs over 100m.
“It’s a nice place to be in, leading up to trials,” Wild acknowledged. “It’s good how I’ve had Kath to train with. Doing time trials is not the same but it’s good to have some sort of race practice. It fills me with confidence going into the trials. It’s nice to have that reassurance, especially after having such a long time out of the waTRIBUTES ter, coming back in a better position than I was before.”
Duncan Scott was another going back to Stirling with a better sense of his fitness and form. He matched Dawson with his own third triumph last night by edging Tom Dean in the 200m freestyle by just five-hundredths of a second in 1:46.70.
Supreme in the 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley on Saturday, the double Olympic medallist looked assured in all three of his intended individual events for Tokyo.
“With the way people have been swimming, it’s just been good to get in and just race and put myself out there,” the 23-year-old said. “I’ve been doing some racing in Stirling but to come here and race some other guys has been really fun. It was so tight and that’s going to be good for trials and the 4x200m relay as well.”
Ross Murdoch came off second best in his dress rehearsal for his primary pursuit at the Olympic trials, losing to chief rival James Wilby in the 200m breaststroke final by over a second.
Anna Hopkin clocked 54.44 secs to pull off a surprise win over Freya Anderson in the women’s 100m freestyle final with Lucy Hope third, while Keanna Macinnes finished second to Harriet Jones in the 100m butterfly.
But Paralympic silver medallist Scott Quin tuned up for his Tokyo trials with a S14 200m breaststroke British record of 2:27.83.