The Scotsman

I’ve still got it, says winner Westwood

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An emotional Lee Westwood fought back tears after claiming his first European Tour title since 2014 with a third victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa.

Westwood fired an eagle and six birdies in a brilliant final round of 64 at Sun City to finish 15 under par and three shotsahead­ofovernigh­tleader Sergio Garcia, with home favourite Louis Oosthuizen a shot further back after a double bogey on the 18th.

The victory is Westwood’s 24th on the European Tour and his first on the circuit since April 2014, although he did win the Indonesian Masters on the Asian Tour in 2015.

And it vindicated the 45-year-old’s decision to rule himself out of the running to be Europe’s Ryder Cup captain in 2020 as he targets a record-equalling 11th appearance in the contest as a player at Whistling Straits.

“I’m a bit emotional to be honest, you’re never sure whether you’re going to be able to do it again,” said Westwood, who previously won the event in 2010 and 2011 when it was a 12-man invitation­al. “Still got it, I guess. Just nice to do it again under pressure and win against a couple of quality players at the end there. I can’t wait to watch the highlights to be honest because I hit so many good shots coming in.”

Westwood’s partner Helen Storey was his caddie for the week and he added: “It’s been brilliant. She’s caddied twice for me this year and we lost in a play-off in Denmark and we’ve won here. Might have to have a bit of a rethink, not least about who caddies for me, but our percentage­s!”

0 Lee Westwood with partner and caddie Helen Storey after his Nedbank Challenge win at Sun City. Nedbank Challenge

Gary Player CC, Sun City, South Africa (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72)

273 Lee Westwood 71 69 69 64

276 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 64 71 71 70

277 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 67 72 69

280 Ross Fisher 71 72 67 70

281 Haotong Li (Chn) 71 70 75 65, Matt Wallace 69 72 73 67

282 Thomas Detry (Bel) 75 66 68 73

283 Aaron Rai 72 68 75 68

284 Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 74 67 71 72, Chris Paisley 72 75 70 67

285 Lucas Bjerregaar­d (Den) 75 70 75 65, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 72 71 70 72, Mike Lorenzo-vera (Fra) 68 73 72 72, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 71 70 75 69, Branden Grace (Rsa) 70 71 74 70

286 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 69 76 70 71, Ashun Wu (Chn) 69 73 74 70, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 74 72 67, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 68 70 71 77, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 74 72 71 69

Selected other:

297 S Gallacher 77 75 70 75

Westwood began the final round three shots behind Garcia, but made the ideal start with an eagle from three feet on the par-five second and also birdied the eighth to reach the turn in 33. Further birdies on the 11th, 13th and 14th ensured he kept pace with Oosthuizen as the pair traded blows on the back nine before Oosthuizen crucially three-putted the 15th from the back of the green.

Westwood seized his opportunit­y and birdied the 16th and 17th to leave Oosthuizen needing to eagle the last to force a play-off, but a wayward drive led to a doubleboge­y six to drop the former Open champion into third place.“there’snotmuchmo­re I could have done,” Oosthuizen said. “I made good putts. I missed a few easier putts, but all in all I attacked when I wanted to attack and I pulled a lot of good shots off.”

Garcia had been chasing back-to-back wins and a wireto-wire success after an opening 64, but had to settle for second place after a closing 70.

“I didn’t have my A game, other than Thursday obviously, but I fought hard,” Garcia said. “I’m thrilled for Lee. He had a bad Ryder Cup at Hazeltine [in 2016] and he struggled a little bit, but he’s been playing much better this year.” HOCKEY Grange strengthen­ed their position at the top of the men’s first division with a 3-1 win over Kelburne, Cammy Fraser, Dan Coultas and Robbie Shepperdso­n scoring for Grange.

That defeat leaves Kelburne firmly in the relegation play-off places.

All three teams tying for second place won but Grove Menzieshil­l benefited most in terms of goal difference with their 7-0 defeat of Gordonians, with Cammy Golden and Aidan Mcquade weighing in with doubles. ATHLETICS Jemma Reekie admitted advice from Laura Muir helped spur her to inherit the Scottish cross-country title from her training partner.

The European junior champion, pictured, claimed her first senior crown by winning Saturday’s short course race at Lanark in 13 minutes and seven seconds to pip Morag Millar.

“I guess I’ve kept it in the training group since Laura has won this the last three years,” said Reekie. “I would love to have raced her here but she has her own training programme at the moment and of course that’s very important.”

Western Wildcats are third after a 2-0 win over Clydesdale. Hillhead, making a great bid for a top four finish, beat Watsonians 1-0 thanks to a Callum Duke goal.

Edinburgh University retained the lead in the women’s first division as first half goals by Hanna Mckie, Sophie Maunder and Ella Watt gave them a 3-0 win over Glasgow University.

Clydesdale­western’s2-1win over Western Wildcats saw the two swap places. Clydesdale are second, three points behind Edinburgh Uni.

Another of Muir’s protégés, Sol Sweeney, took the men’s crown ahead of Adam Craig and Michael Ferguson, with Anna Macfadyen landing the Under-20 title. Meanwhile, Muir will have a little more work to do to qualify for next year’s IAAF world championsh­ips in Doha after the sport’s chiefs abandoned plans to give spots automatica­lly to the world rankings leaders. The proposal has met with opposition from a number of athletes amid claims of a lack of consultati­on.

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