Lee Westwood

Lee Westwood, an athlete and a professional golfer was born on April 24, 1973, in Worksop, England. Westwood was the only child born to John Westwood, a math teacher who also took up the game at the same time as his son to encourage him, and his wife Trish, a podiatrist.

John Westwood was a competitive man, and his son was naturally brought up to be the same way, his father in an interview said “He and I used to have swimming races on holiday,” He also recalled. “If it was diving, I might give him a mark occasionally and then he would try and beat that mark. We did press-ups against one another. When he was little we would roll cars to see who could get it closer to the edge of the table. We would arm-wrestle. The competition was not vicious. When he won, he got rewarded.”

Westwood from an early age was very interested in sports, he was a talented athlete at school, he played cricket, rugby and football. Although golf seemed to hold his interest more than anything, he’d fallen in love with the sport at the age of 12 when he stayed up late to watch Jack Nicklaus win the 1986 Masters.

Westwood began to play golf aged 13 with a half set bought by his grandparents. He had a later start at the game than many future tournament professionals, but less than two years later he was the junior champion of Nottinghamshire. In 1993 after he won the British Youth Championship he turned professional. The Volvo Scandinavian Masters followed by the Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters in Japan in 1996 was Westwood’s first and second win.

In April 1998, Westwood won the Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans, and later in the year claimed two more victories in Europe. Westwood has won 21 events on the European Tour; an amazing feat. He has also won tournaments in North America, Africa, Asia and Australia.

The year 2000 was his most successful to date, he won seven tournaments worldwide and ranked 1^st on the European Order of Merit.

Following that year Westwood had to take a long break from the game, he wanted to attend to his wife (Laurae Coltart) for the birth of his first child, his son Samuel Bevan. Westwood married Laurae Coltart, the sister of Scottish Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart. They had two sons together, Samuel Bevan and Poppy Grace (2004).

After his break from the game Westwood started reconstructing his swing under coaching of David Leadbetter who is a leading golf instructor from England. The reconstruction meant he was out of contention for tournaments.

In 2007 Westwood returned to his winning ways when he won Valle Romano Open de Andalucia and the Quinn Direct British Masters, bring his overall tally to 18. Westwood finished the 2007 season with five top 10 finishes in the last five events.

At the 2010 Masters Westwood earned a career best second place, leading by one shot going into the final day before Phil Mickelson overtook him and became the champion. Later that year at the St. Jude Classic Westwood came through with his 2nd tour victory.

On 31 October 2010, Westwood became the World number one golfer, removing the long standing Tiger Woods from the #1 spot. Westwood kept the landmark for 17 weeks and was replaced by Martin Kaumer.

Westwood has been dogged by the perception that he can’t close out big tournaments. In his career he has suffered some heavy heart breaking losses. He missed a 20 feet birdie at the US Open 2008, which would have landed him into the play-offs. Also at the 2010 Masters and the Players Championship Westwood lost his leads, and he was not able to finish the game for a win. Like any true athlete Westwood is a fighter and will keep on working on his game to regain the number one spot. His fans would hope that happens sooner than later.

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Posted by Kashif Khan on Jan 29 2012. Filed under Sports, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.