Westwood ends drought
Lee Westwood, former world No. 1, wins first tournament in over a year.
Lee Westwood secured his 25th European Tour win with victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in United Arab Emirates.
Westwood, who had a oneshot overnight lead, now has won in four decades starting in the 1990s. The Englishman’s 5-under, final-round 67 gave him a two-shot margin over a chasing pack of France’s Victor Perez (63) and England’s Tommy Fleetwood (63) and Matthew Fitzpatrick (67), who each finished at 271.
Top-ranked Brooks Koepka finished tied for 34th with an 8-under 280 after a 69 in the final round. It was Koepka’s first tournament since returning from a knee injury he aggravated in October when he slipped while walking off the tee at the CJ Cup in South Korea. He previously had stem cell treatment for a partially torn tendon in his patella.
Westwood, a former world No. 1-ranked player, turns 47 in April.
“It’s been a good week,” Westwood told europeantour.com. “I wasn’t really paying any attention to what other people were doing. I was trying to control me, control my emotions and control what I’m working on in the golf swing. Just managed to do that.”
Westwood was ranked No. 63 in the world going into the event, but the first victory by an English player on the 2020 Race to Dubai should move him into the top 30. His previous win came in November 2018 in South Africa. The one before that was in Malaysia in April 2014, right before he turned 41.
Won’t leave without it
Andrew Landry regrouped to win The American Express after blowing a six-stroke lead on the back nine in La Quinta, Calif. Landry broke a tie with Abraham Ancer with a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole and made a 6-footer on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 67 and a two-stroke victory. Landy won the pro-am event at PGA West two years after losing a playoff to Jon Rahm. Landry, 32, of Texas, has two PGA Tour victories, also winning the 2018 Texas Open. Landry finished at 26-under 262.
LPGA winner TBD
The final round of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., featured a little bit of everything. It did everything but decide a champion. Nasa Hataoka and Gaby Lopez matched par five times in a playoff at the 197-yard 18th hole until it was too dark to continue. They will return at 8 a.m. Monday to see who gets the trophy. LPGA Hall of Famer Inbee Park also was in the playoff, but was eliminated on the third extra hole when her tee shot caromed off rocks left of the par-3 18th and bounded into surrounding water.
Argentine teen in Masters
Abel Gallegos was 5 when the golf pro at a nine-hole course left a club outside his door while searching for young boys on the outskirts of
Buenos Aires who might be interested in playing. The small community of Venticinco de Mayo was all about soccer.
Gallegos, 17, became the first Argentine to win the Latin American Amateur Championship when he rallied from a two-shot deficit with a 4-under 67 and a fourshot victory at Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Next stop: Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters. This also is the first year the R&A is granting the Latin American Amateur winner a spot in the British Open.