The perpetual bridesmaid of the 2000s and 2010s took one more turn at center stage on Thursday.
Lee Westwood is golf's most famous bridesmaid, an affable bloke who's never quite managed to get across the finish line in majors. He was the last man in the field out before two of the most playoffs of this century: the famous Tiger Woods-Rocco Mediate battle in the 2008 U.S. Open and the legendary Tom Watson-Stewart Cink tilt in the 2009 British Open. During one stretch from 2009 to 2010, he finished T3 or better in four of the five majors ... but didn't win any of them.
So it came as a bit of a jolt for American audiences who woke up Thursday morning to see Lee Westwood near the top of the leaderboard at the British Open. (Also up there: Phil Mickelson, who outdueled Westwood in 2010 at the Masters. Fifteen years ago.)
Westwood rode three early birdies to a front-nine 33. Only a couple late bogeys marred his round, but he nonetheless finished the day at -2, two strokes behind clubhouse leaders Jacob Skov Olesen and Haotong Li.
The key fact about Westwood's run of majors is that it came back in the 2000s and early 2010s — a lifetime ago in golf terms. All told, he had three runner-up finishes and 12 top-5s, a crushing run of near-misses. Late in his career, he opted to jump to LIV Golf, and effectively vanished from the golf scene just as he was poised to become a key figure in the European Ryder Cup firmament. At least he earned one more day in the spotlight ... and maybe a few more.
Category: General Sports
