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SportOther SportThe longevity of the career is staggering.

Sunday, 13th December 2020, 2:49 pm

Lee Westwood may never have won a major the best player never to do so dare we say but even that must now be rendered inconsequential given this latest achievement.

Twenty years after winning the European Tours money list for the first time, and 11 years after claiming it for a second time, the 47-year-old from Worksop topped the Order of Merit for a third occasion in the Middle East yesterday.

The Race to Dubai it might now be known, but how the evergreen Westwood outran athletes half his age over the marathon of a season is a testament to his everlasting durability.

Granted, it was a season truncated by coronavirus, but still. This has to be Westwoods crowning glory, eclipsing even November 2010 when he rose to No 1 in the world rankings.

Eclipsing his first Order of Merit title, surely, when he ended Colin Montgomeries seven-year stranglehold over the European Tour.

Even then, that first Harry Vardon Trophy for Europes premier player, would have been his earlier had it not been for Montgomerie, with Westwood winning 12 times over a three-year span from 1998.

His first win came in 1996. Earlier this year the man who honed his skills at Worksop Golf Club achieved a victory in four different decades.

There have been lean years, notably a spell after the turn of the millennium when he plummeted to a position outside the top 250 in the world, but that he scaled the mountain top eventually a deceade ago now says much about his resolve.

Not many golfers can operate at the top level for the best part of a quarter of a century. For every Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on the PGA Tour, who can match Westwood for longevity, there is a David Duval, Vijay Singh or Jason Dufner, men who enjoyed spells but faded.

Watching it all unfold yesterday was Billy Foster, for so long Westwoods caddie but now carrying the bag for Sheffields Matt Fitzpatrick, the only man to go lower than Westwood in Dubai.

Foster will have been the first to join Westwood for a celebratory drink.

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Lee Westwoods longevity at the top his greatest achievement - Yorkshire Post

This entry was posted on December 16, 2020 at 9:56 pm and is filed under Longevity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |