PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – It’s been a long Florida fortnight for a man of a certain age.
At 47 years old and trending, Lee Westwood couldn’t hide the fatigue that back-to-back weeks in contention on the PGA Tour can produce.
“Everybody keeps telling me how old I am,” he smiled following a long day battling a group of twenty-somethings.
He didn’t win The Players Championship. That honor went to 27-year-old Justin Thomas. But the clever Englishman did manage to post his second consecutive runner-up finish in as many weeks and drastically change his narrative for the next few months.
Westwood started the year on the radar of European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington – not as a player, but as a vice captain. But after the last two weeks, Harrington is likely starting to look at potential pairings for the veteran of 10 matches representing Team Europe.
You could call this a second act for Westwood, but it’s more like his third, or maybe even his fourth, depending on who is counting.
He climbed to fifth in the world as a young man in the late 1990s, only to plummet outside the top 200 by 2003. A year later he’d regained his form, and he’s spent the better part of the last two decades inside the top 50, including a 22-week run as the game’s top-ranked player in 2010-11.
How Westwood raised game to next level at Players
But these were supposed to be his golden years. He served as a Ryder Cup vice captain in 2018 in Paris and began this season a full decade removed from his last PGA Tour victory, although there has been sustained success on the European Tour, including last year’s weighty victory in Abu Dhabi.
Few outside of Team Westy would have predicted this run of form, but it’s not difficult to explain the last two weeks. It was there etched across his admittedly weathered face on the week’s final hole, where he’d just rolled in a 15-footer for birdie and embraced his fiancée and caddie, Helen Storey.
Storey’s impact as a sounding board/sports psychologist/life coach is evident to all. Even DeChambeau, whose specialty is normally math and critical thinking, knows a confidant when he sees one.
“I think Helen is a big part of it,” DeChambeau said when asked what impressed him most about Westwood’s game. “She’s keeping him steady and levelheaded, and she’s a rock. Keeps his mind focused on the right things, and she’s been awesome for him, and that’s one of his secret weapons.”
Even with his secret weapon by his side, Westwood came up just short for the second consecutive Sunday. His closing 72 at TPC Sawgrass left him alone in second place and a stroke behind Thomas. Last week at Bay Hill it was DeChambeau, another 27-year-old, who clipped him.
Lee Westwood said he is taking his son, Sam, to Augusta National for a little fun and some prep work.
With age comes perspective.
“I’m 48 in a month’s time, and I’m still out here contending for tournaments and playing in final groups with great players like Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas and people like that,” Westwood said. “It’s just a joy to be involved and still playing well and being able to contend.”
With age also comes a good amount of subtext. This was more than just another solid week at the Tour’s flagship event for Westwood. His play puts a bow on his complicated relationship with The Players. In 2011, the then-world No. 1 made headlines when he very publicly skipped the championship. It was a protest move born from a Tour rule that limited non-members to 10 starts.
Westwood has since become a staple at The Players with a ball-striking game that’s a perfect fit for TPC Position Golf.
The anatomy of this particular near-miss rests with, of all things, two layups that cost Westwood his third Tour title. His second shot from the trees at the par-5 second hole clipped a branch and found the water, leading to a disappointing bogey. On the 16th hole, Westwood wasn’t much better with a second shot that found a fairway bunker and a scrambling par when he desperately needed a birdie to keep pace with Thomas.
“I probably had my ‘C’ game today, and grinding it out,” admitted Westwood, who played the crucial final three holes on Sunday in even par.
There is a predictable ebb and flow to life on Sundays at Tour events. Thomas was filled with joy following his victory. DeChambeau was predictably, and understandably, dour following a scrappy closing round that left him tied for third place. And then there was Westwood, who is cut from a different cloth, one of great maturity and perspective, which explains why when the Tour restarted last June, Westwood remained in the U.K. for months and skipped the PGA Championship.
Do you enjoy the game, Lee?
“I do enjoy the game more. I take it for what it is: a game,” he shrugged. “We’re just trying to get a little white ball into a little white hole. It gets treated far too seriously occasionally. With what’s going on in the world, it’s fun to be doing a job that I love and that I’ve done for 28 years, and I’m still doing it.
“You’ve got to have realities in your life, and my life is full of reality, yeah.”
The grey in Westwood’s beard gives his age away, but it’s the knowing smile that offers a glimpse into how 47 years can shape one’s perspective.
Another runner-up finish.
Another chance to feel the rush of a Sunday in contention.
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
