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| September 1, 2003 | Monday | Rajab 3, 1424 |
Westwood ends three-year victory drought
MUNICH, Aug 31: Britain’s former world number four Lee Westwood emerged from the wilderness to claim his first victory in nearly three years when he clinched the BMW International Open on Sunday by three shots.
Westwood’s seven birdies in 10 holes from the ninth took him to a closing six-under-par 66 for a 19-under-par 269 total, three shots better than Germany’s Alex Cejka.
It was the 30-year-old Westwood’s first strokeplay success since the Belgian Open in September 2000, the year he became European number one, and his first win since the World Match Play two weeks later in 2000.
Since then, Westwood has plummeted to 215th place in the world from number four at the end of 2000.
His $326,000 win, though, will take him back up the world rankings in the week before Europe’s Ryder Cup campaign begins.
Westwood began the final round three strokes adrift of Sweden’s Robert Karlsson and hardly looked as though he would win when he bogeyed the seventh hole.
But then as Karlsson started floundering, a double-bogey at the 10th when he three-putted from 10ft proving particularly costly, Westwood began his victory march with three successive birdies from the 11th.
When he birdied the last three holes, his barren period ended with a 15th European Tour title.
Leading scores (Britain unless stated):
269 Lee Westwood 65 68 70 66
272 Alex Cejka (Germany) 69 66 70 67
273 Paul Casey 65 69 70 69, Andrew Coltart 70 70 65 68, Gary Evans 66 68 68 71, Peter Hedblom (Sweden) 66 66 74 67, Raphael Jacquelin (France) 62 69 71 71
274 John Bickerton 67 68 68 71, Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 65 64 71 74, Marcel Siem (Germany) 64 70 68 72
275 Brian Davis 68 69 65 73, Gary Emerson 64 68 73 70, Stephen Gallacher 67 66 72 70, David Howell 64 71 70 70, Trevor Immelman (South Africa) 69 67 72 67
276 Carlos Rodiles (Spain) 71 69 69 67
277 Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 64 70 70 73, Ernie Els (South Africa) 68 71 74 64, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 71 65 68 73, Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark) 69 67 71 70, Paul McGinley (Ireland) 69 66 70 72, Andrew Raitt 70 69 68 70
278 Robert-Jan Derksen (Netherlands) 75 65 68 70, Stephen Dodd 71 69 67 71, Soren Hansen (Denmark) 68 67 74 69, Maarten Lafeber (Netherlands) 68 72 68 70, Bernhard Langer (Germany) 67 72 72 67, Kevin Na (South Korea) 71 69 71 67, Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 70 64 74 70
SCOTT TAKES COMMAND
NORTON (Massachusetts): Australian Adam Scott fired a spectacular nine-under-par 62 to charge two strokes clear of the field at the $5 million Deutsche Bank Championship on Saturday.
Scott finished 11 under on 131, two ahead of Fiji’s Vijay Singh (68). Australian Geoff Ogilvy (66) and Britain’s Justin Rose (71) were tied for third place on 134, eight under.
South Korea’s KJ Choi, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, Steve Flesch and Tim Herron were a further shot back.
Tiger Woods bogeyed four of the first seven holes and was in danger of missing his first PGA Tour cut since the 1997 Canadian Open. But the world number one birdied six of the final 11 holes to card a 69 for a three-under-par total of 139.
Scott, 23, who has won three international events but none on the PGA Tour, cruised to a six-under 30 on his back nine, the outward half at the TPC at Boston.
He eagled the par-five second hole before opening his two-stroke lead with birdies at the par-five seventh and par-four ninth.
Leading second round scores:
131 Adam Scott (Australia) 69 62
133 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 65 68
134 Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 68 66, Justin Rose (Britain) 63 71
135 KJ Choi (South Korea) 67 68, Darren Clarke (Britain) 67 68, Steve Flesch 66 69, Tim Herron 67 68
136 Tim Petrovic 66 70, Greg Norman (Australia) 69 67, Glen Day 68 68
137 Kent Jones 68 69, Rocco Mediate 67 70, Carl Paulson 68 69
138 John Senden (Australia) 74 64, Heath Slocum 67 71, Briny Baird 71 67, Garrett Willlis, 66 72, Andrew Magee 70 68, Todd Fischer 72 66, Jonathan Kaye 71 67, Robert Allenby (Australia) 74 64, Kenichi Kuboya (Japan) 71 67
139 Stewart Cink 72 67, Tiger Woods 70 69, Phillip Price (Britain) 67 72, Jay Williamson 72 67, Aaron Oberholser 66 73, Darron Stiles 71 68
Other international players:
140 Tim Clark (South Africa) 71 69, David Frost (South Africa) 69 71, Peter Lonard (Australia) 70 70, Jesper Parnevik (Sweden) 72 68
141 Glen Hnatiuk (Canada) 69 72,
Paul Gow (Australia) 73 68, Richard Johnson (Sweden) 71 70
142 Carl Pettersson (Sweden) 71 71, Tim Wilkinson (New Zealand) 74 68, Carlos Franco (Paraguay) 74 68
143 Deane Pappas (South Africa) 71 72
144 Shigeki Maruyama (Japan) 70 74, Ian Leggatt (Canada) 72 72, Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan) 73 71, Gavin Coles (Australia) 76 68, Grant Waite (New Zealand) 75 69
145 Craig Perks (New Zealand) 71 74, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Sweden) 74 71
146 Thomas Levet (France) 73 73, Kaname Yokoo (Japan) 75 71
147 Brenden Pappas (South Africa) 74 73, John Morgan (Britain) 74 73
148 Aaron Baddeley (Australia) 74 74, Stuart Appleby (Australia) 77 71, Luke Donald (Britain) 73 75, Anthony Painter (Australia) 74 74
149 Matthew Goggin (Australia) 76 73, Rod Pampling (Australia) 70 79
151 Akio Sadakata (Japan) 73 78, Esteban Toledo (Mexico) 74 77
152 Greg Chalmers (Australia) 75 77
153 Jose Coceres (Argentina) 74 79
155 Steven Alker (New Zealand) 81 74 — AFP/Reuters
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