Westwood Chases a First From in Front
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Version 0 of 1. GULLANE, Scotland — On the 16th green at Muirfield, a flock of sea gulls was fighting over a big crust of bread, swooping, shrieking and depriving one another of the loot as the golf fans, pressed tight against the ropes, pointed and chuckled. The timing seemed just right considering that the two men in the process of hitting their tee shots, Lee Westwood and Tiger Woods, were also scrapping over the British Open lead. Theirs was a more civilized tussle, but their small talk in the fairway and nods of mutual appreciation should not for a moment obscure the ferocious ambition at work. Woods, once the game’s uncontested alpha male, wants his first major title in five years. Westwood, with his biological clock ticking ever louder at age 40, wants his first major title, period. And when the last putts were holed in the golden light Saturday and the last handshake exchanged on the 18th green, Westwood was the third-round leader at three under par after shooting a one-under 70. Woods, who shot a one-over 72 on Saturday, and his fellow American Hunter Mahan are two shots back. Adam Scott, the reigning Masters champion, who blew a four-shot lead at last year’s British Open at Royal Lytham, is at even par. Four other men are one shot back of Scott. Attendance is down significantly here from 2002, the last time the Open was staged at these remarkable East Lothian links, but there is no faulting the 2013 plot lines. All that talent and hunger sharing tight space on the leader board should provide the ingredients for a particularly compelling Sunday. Woods will play with Scott (and Woods’s former caddie Steve Williams) in the penultimate group; Mahan will play with Westwood in the final group. Woods has not won any of his 14 major titles without at least a share of the lead going into the final round. But will all his success under pressure give him an edge over Westwood on Sunday? “I’ve got 14 of these things, and I know what it takes to win it,” Woods said. “He’s won tournaments all over the world. He knows how to win golf tournaments. He’s two shots ahead, and we’re going to go out there and both compete and play. It’s not just us two. There’s a bunch of guys who have a chance to win.” Miguel Ángel Jiménez, the 49-year-old ponytailed Spaniard who led after two rounds, no longer appears to be one of them after shooting a 77 and dropping to three over. But the four-man chase pack at one over includes another crafty veteran who likes a smoke: Ángel Cabrera, the 43-year-old Argentine who has already won the Masters and the United States Open. Another former Masters champion, the American Zach Johnson, is also among that pack. Five shots off the lead at two over lurks Phil Mickelson, a four-time major champion who won his first links tournament at the Scottish Open last week and finished in a tie for second at last month’s United States Open. Aye, as they say in Scotland, there are plenty of convincing alternatives if Westwood cracks once more and Woods cannot fill the gap. But there is already a clear winner after three rounds at fast-running Muirfield: Sean Foley. Foley, the Canadian swing coach, works with all three of the players atop the leader board. He began coaching Mahan five years ago and joined forces with Woods in 2010 when Woods was still reeling from a sex scandal. Foley has also worked for four years with Justin Rose, the Englishman who broke through to win his first major at this year’s United States Open. Rose did not make the cut here, which proves that Foley’s counsel is not quite foolproof. But there is still a chance for another English breakthrough with Foley’s latest client. Westwood took a five-hour lesson with Foley earlier this summer and has consulted with him during practice rounds here. “When you look at what Sean has achieved with Tiger and Justin, plus the likes of Hunter Mahan, you’ve got to say he is in the top drawer as a coach,” Westwood said last week. “He obviously knows his stuff.” Foley, as much a mental coach as a swing coach, apparently will not have to choose which of his pupils to follow Sunday. “Gone back to Florida, I believe this morning,” Westwood said. “So you won’t see him on the range tomorrow.” Westwood was once ranked No. 1 in the world and has won 39 tournaments as a professional. But he split with his coach Pete Cowen last August and has been searching for a breakthrough after finishing in the top five at major championships seven times. He has been a gallant loser, but he still craves the big one that so many of his less consistent peers have already acquired, including his close friend Darren Clarke, who won the 2011 British Open at age 42. “Even though I haven’t won a major, I know what it takes to win one,” Westwood said. To get more quality practice time, he moved his family last year from their longtime home in Worksop, England, to South Florida. He trains at Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens. He has worked recently with Ian Baker-Finch, the 1991 British Open champion from Australia, on his putting, trying to adopt a more relaxed approach. But what has not changed is Westwood’s ability to thrust and parry with dry English wit. The opening questioner from the floor at Saturday’s news conference mentioned the “high-pressure situation” and asked Westwood what he might do to take his mind off things. “Well, actually I’m not in a high-pressure situation, because I’m going to go have dinner, and I’m so good with a knife and fork now that I don’t feel any pressure at all,” Westwood said. He was then asked about the Florida move. “Little did I know when I moved to Florida that I was acclimatizing for the Open in Scotland,” he said about this year’s sun-drenched tournament. “I’m just too smart for myself.” Though Westwood went on to explain that he was not “daft” enough to move his family across the Atlantic for the sake of the four major tournaments, he did believe the move had helped his game based on recent results. “You’d have to say it’s worked to a certain extent in a positive way,” he said. As for the most recent results, after three rounds at brutally tough Muirfield, Westwood is one of only three men under par. His pairing with Woods on Saturday often felt like match play as they swapped the tournament lead. Woods seized a share of it early with a 25-foot putt for birdie on No. 2. Westwood seized it on the par-5 fifth after two drivers put him nearly on the green, and he sank a curling uphill, 45-foot putt for an eagle. On they walked, often side by side, to shouts from the gallery of “Tiger, you are the king” and “Come on, Lee.” Westwood, however, had the edge in support, and secured the lead on the par-5 17th hole, when Woods mis-hit his second shot into a fairway bunker and ended up with a bogey and Westwood struck a beautifully paced 15-foot putt for birdie. It was the kind of two-shot swing on which major championships turn, but for all the collective roars and groans, it was only Saturday. As Woods knows from triumphs past and Westwood from bitter experience, Sunday remains the day of judgment in golf. |