Westwood: I failed my pal Darren
Lee WestWood has admitted he felt like he let down his great friend darren Clarke with his pointless performance at the Ryder Cup.
Westwood was one of captain Clarke’s wildcards, but for the first time in 10 successive Ryder Cup appearances he failed to trouble the scorers, emerging with three defeats from three matches as europe suffered their worst loss for 35 years.
‘Yeah, I did feel like I let him down a little bit,’ the english veteran confessed. ‘Being a captain’s pick I would have liked to have played well for him but we sat down afterwards and chatted about it.
‘I think at the end of the day the American team did to us what we have been doing to them for the last 20 years. they holed a lot of good putts and a lot more putts in general than we did.
‘A lot of people keep saying it was a good result for the Ryder Cup and I suppose, after three wins in a row, you’re going to lose one sooner or later. It’s just unfortunate that it happened on darren’s watch.’
Westwood was hopelessly out of sorts on the first morning and asked to be left out until saturday afternoon. He was then involved in a crucial fourballs match against JB Holmes and Ryan Moore where he missed two short putts on the final two holes — the last one from no more than two feet.
If those two had gone in, europe would have trailed by a single point going into the singles rather than a daunting three.
Just to put the tin lid on it, he was leading Moore by two holes with three to play in the singles, only to lose all three closing holes as the American finished eagle, birdie, par to clinch the winning point.
Yet Westwood is right not to beat himself up too much about it. It might not have worked out this time but he has been the unsung hero of so many europe victories, and had thoroughly earned his pick with his performances over the summer.
‘It hasn’t taken me too long to get over it,’ he said. ‘everyone goes there wanting to play well and I did show spells of good golf. But obviously the team lost, so it was an unsuccessful week.’
Interestingly, before the Ryder Cup, Westwood was talking about trying to make the next two teams as a player but his unnerving experiences under the severest pressure at Hazeltine appear to have brought about a change of heart.
‘I think 2020 is definitely on my radar as a captain,’ said the 43-yearold. dane thomas Bjorn is almost certain to do the job next time in Paris.
Westwood will try to get back on track today after a lousy month’s golf when he competes in the British Masters at the Grove. He will tee off this morning alongside fellow englishmen tyrrell Hatton and defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick.
Masters champion danny Willett and Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston have been drawn together, and tournament host Luke donald will play with Chris Wood and Andy sullivan.