Sportblog | The Guardian — Lee Westwood RSS

Jul 24, 2022

LIV has paid big money for golfers past their best. Will the Saudis care? | Ewan Murray

Henrik Stenson has not won since 2017 and like García, Poulter, Mickelson and Westwood is being paid on name not formSportswashing is not supposed to make commercial sense. Therein lies the reason that no normally functioning business saw fit to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at a disruption plan for golf. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) can attempt to rebrand a kingdom for which the murder of a journalist and human rights atrocities are typical reference points with the benefit of an apparently bottomless pit of cash. If the PGA and DP World Tours find themselves embroiled in a commercial long game with the Saudi-backed LIV Series, they know they will be outmuscled.Events of recent days did, however,...

Mar 24, 2017

Tiger Woods’ toils go on but magical Masters moment of 1997 still resonates | Richard Williams

Watching Tiger Woods now is a struggle but the 20th anniversary of his first Augusta triumph stirs memories of a first-day tee shot that signalled his greatnessThe morning at Augusta National had been spent following Lee Westwood, an early starter in the first round of the 1997 Masters. At 23, the Englishman was making his Masters debut. Just to remind him of where he was, his drive off the first tee flew into an enormous sand trap, setting up a double bogey.Four hours later, as a chastened Westwood was signing for a five‑over‑par 77, news was coming in from the front nine about a worse catastrophe that appeared to be about to engulf an even younger player. Making his much...