Lee Westwood
Worksop, England
Lee John Westwood (born 24 April 1973) is an English professional golfer. He is one of the few golfers who has won tournaments on every continent, including victories on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He was named player of the year for the 1998 and 2000 seasons, winning the latter year’s Order of Merit. He has represented Europe for the last five consecutive Ryder Cups: 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2006. He spent over 150 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings between 1998 and 2001.
Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Westwood began to play golf aged 13 with a half set bought by grandparents. Maths teacher father, John, took up the game at same time to give his son encouragement. In 1990 he won his first amateur tournament, the Peter McEvoy Trophy. In 1993 he won the British Youth Championship and turned professional.
In 1996 he won his first professional tournament, the Volvo Scandinavian Masters, closely followed by the Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters in Japan. His success continued in 1997 defending his Japanese title and winning the Benson & Hedges Malaysian Open, the Volvo Masters in Spain and the Holden Australian Open, beating Greg Norman in a playoff. He also partnered with Nick Faldo in the Ryder Cup that year.
Westwood has won 18 events on the European Tour and has also won tournaments in North America, Africa, Asia and Australia. His Official World Golf Ranking peaked at 4th, but he has made relatively little impact in the major championships. His most successful year to date has been 2000 when he won seven tournaments worldwide and was ranked first on the European Order of Merit, ending Colin Montgomerie’s long run of European Tour dominance.
Westwood took a significant break from the game following the birth of son Samuel Bevan in 2001, and together with a restructuring of his swing under David Leadbetter, led to him being out of contention in tournaments until his 2003 victory in Germany, his 25th worldwide.
Lee returned to the winners circle in 2007 by winning both the Valle Romano Open de Andalucia and the Quinn Direct British Masters to bring his total European Tour wins to 18. As a result he moved back into the top 50 if the Official World Golf Rankings. Lee finished the 2007 season with five top 10 finishes in the last five events. He carried this form into the 2008 season, starting with two tied second places and a fifth, moving back into the top 20 in the world rankings.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Anthony Kim”.
