Lee Westwood: My life in pictures

OH, GEORGIA!

Augusta, Georgia | 12 April 2014

“I love Augusta National. I remember the first year I played the Masters, back in 1997, I turned up really early. I think I got there the Friday before the tournament was due to start. There were no crowds, no ropes, nothing like that. I just went out to have a look at it. I remember being amazed by the size of the place. You know, the wide open spaces, how undulating it was and the green-ness of it all. It’s just one of those places where there’s not one bit of it that disappoints. It’s a course I like to play, too. I think some people turn up and just can’t see a way around it but, if you’ve got good course management and can manage your game well, I think it’ll suit you.”

MUM’S THE WORD

Augusta, Georgia | 10 April 2013

“My parents have been a huge influence on my career. They got me my first set of clubs, took me for my first lessons, they were taxi drivers when I needed to get to tournaments and they were caddies occasionally as well. Parents are the most influential people on a golfer’s career and certainly on mine. There’s a lot that goes into the top of getting to any sport but that can’t happen without the support of your parents when you’re very young and, because I’m an only child, there were obviously no brothers or sisters for me to play golf with, so, growing up, I played a lot with my dad. I think she had a putt at the ninth green – and, by the look on her face, she holed it, too.”

NO CIGAR

St Andrews, Scotland | 18 July 2010

“This is me at the 2010 Open, where I finished second. I won the other tournament that week. Louis Oosthuizen ran away with that one. I think he was about six clear. It’s really been towards the latter part of my career that I’ve started to get the hang of the majors. In my early days on tour, I didn’t contend in them as much as I should have done. There was a period there where I seemed to be in the top-10 in nearly  every major. Some I didn’t win because other people played better. Others, I just did the wrong thing at the wrong time, like The Open at Turnberry [in 2009] when I three-putted the last. I always gave 110% and thought I was making the right decisions. I still feel I’ve got a chance but it would need to be the right course.”