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Westwood's impressive run nets win in Spain

Sun 13th, May 2007

Marbella, Spain (Sports Network) - Lee Westwood capped an impressive weekend run with a five-under 67 Sunday to win the European Tour's Valle Romano Open de Andalucia, his first victory in nearly four years.

Westwood went a combined 20-under par after opening the tournament with a 72 in the first round. He set a course record with his 64 on Friday and posted two more rounds in the 60s to win for the first time since the Dunhill Links Championship in September 2003. That last victory was Westwood's second in five weeks. It took the Englishman 189 more weeks to get career win No. 17, which placed him alone in 14th place on the European Tour's all-time list. He ended at 20-under 268 overall for a two-shot win over fellow Englishman Phillip Archer and Swede Fredrik Andersson. "I never really thought about going so long without a win," Westwood said. "I've still been playing pretty well and I knew that winning is fickle, sometimes you just don't get across the line first." A five-time Ryder Cup standout, Westwood won 16 times between 1996 and 2003 -- including six victories in 2000 alone to match the European Tour record set by Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie. That run netted Westwood the yearlong Order of Merit title, ending Montgomerie's seven-year stint at the top. But it had been a quiet three-plus years for Westwood -- excluding his impressive Ryder Cup record -- until this weekend, when he clinched victory at Aloha Golf Club with a final round that included eight birdies and three bogeys. He opened with three consecutive birdies beginning at No. 1 -- all on putts around three feet -- then added two more from No. 7 to make the turn in 31 with a commanding lead. Only three back-nine bogeys kept it from being a runaway win, trimming Westwood's five-shot lead with eight holes remaining into a two-shot victory. "It looked like it might be a lot easier than I made it in the end," he said. Westwood's win overshadowed an impressive finish for the 34-year-old Andersson, who posted his second consecutive top-five finish with weekend rounds of 64 and 66 (his 64 Saturday matched Westwood's new course record). Archer had a 65 Sunday to join Andersson in second place at 18-under 270. Second round leader Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa closed with a 69 and shared fourth place with Sweden's Michael Jonzon (69) at 16-under 272. Denmark's Thomas Bjorn (67) finished another shot further back at 273.