No Major win, but no regrets just yet for Westwood

Just short of his 40th birthday, Lee Westwood took a last throw of the dice in his quest to win a Major.

He moved his family lock, stock, and barrel to West Palm Beach, Florida in the hope a change of scenery, and much less travel, would help break his duck in golf’s main events.

A few months down the line, and with the four Majors long since entered into the record books, the big Englishman is still waiting for a Major.

Regrets? He has none!

Moreover he stands by the huge changes he made to his game mid-season.

Westwood went for a different coach, and sought help on his putting from former Open champion, Ian Baker-Finch.

“Nobody wants to try to change things in the middle of the year, but that’s the way the cards fell,” he reflects.

“There certainly have been a lot of changes, what with me using Ian on the greens and taking on Sean Foley as my coach.

“Some may think that’s not ideal, but you can’t always make changes at the moment you want.”

Despite switching horses in midstream, the Midlander is nonplussed about a lot of the criticism he’s received.

“I contended in three out of the four Majors, but all everybody seems to be interested in is how many wins you’ve had.

“So the column marked ‘W’ is blank, and nobody is happy with that situation.

“For me, this year it was all about the Major Championships and the PGA at Wentworth.

“I got on the leaderboards, and at Muirfield I was right there. But the final round was a bit of a letdown.”

Westwood took the same path at the US PGA, and it was a disappointing 33rd-place finish that prompted the social media abuse that he admits put him over the edge.

“I’d just reached the stage where I’d had enough of the abuse,” he states. “A lot of people are brave when they get behind a keyboard.

“Would they come up to me personally and say the same things to my face?” says the normally mild-mannered and courteous Westwood.

“I’d just had enough, and I’d been enjoying a few vodkas probably just enough to take them on!”

Lee has had the misfortune to have been playing in the Woods era, where for years the pack scrambled for the Tiger’s left-overs,

But he retains all the attributes to fulfill his ambition to become a Major champion.

Has, however, his day come and gone now that he is in his 40s, as Colin Montgomerie stated after the US PGA?

Well, as Ernie Els proved at Lytham last year, aged 42, and Phil Mickelson underlined at Muirfield this year, aged 43, Lee still has time on his side.