Open Golf: Will Westwood ever win a Major?

YES
This was his best chance, but not his last chance, says James Tompkinson

Lee Westwood will climb into bed tonight with a sickening feeling in his stomach – that he has just blown the best chance he will ever get to win a major championship.

There’s no denying that Westwood had a nightmare today. He had one hand on the claret jug and then completely lost his way.

Yet somehow I struggle to comprehend the notion that he will never win a major. For three days this week Westwood played outstandingly well – so well in fact that people were talking about a new player around the greens and someone who seems to have found a new sense of confidence in his game.

That does not just go away overnight.

Westwood’s move stateside was designed to help him win the US Majors, and he should take heart from the fact that he has come so close in the major he is probably least suited to.

Will he ever win The Open? Possibly not. But that major is coming for Lee, he’s getting closer.
Will he ever win The Open? Possibly not. But that major is coming for Lee, he’s getting closer. NO
He clearly just doesn’t have what it takes, says Joe Harrison

Sitting in Lee Westwood’s press conference last night, I genuinely believed he would win the Open today.

It was perfectly poised. He seemed composed and comfortable with the fact that he was leading by two and that it was his to lose. But today made it clearer than ever that mentally, Westwood just doesn’t have what it takes on the final day.

One massive obstacle was how to hold off Tiger Woods, by some distance the best player of the modern era. No easy prospect.

But Woods did the job for him by playing as poorly as he ever has when in contention on the final day of a Major, and Lee still couldn’t get it done.

While the usual final day story with Westy is dominated by missed putts, today he was nervous off the tee and poor tee-to-green – usually his bread and butter. And when he’s relying on his putter to get him out of trouble, you know it’s probably not going to be his day.

With the biological clock ticking ever louder, I just can’t see Westwood ever getting over the line. He certainly won’t have a better opportunity.