This year’s PGA season is half done and after this week’s Open Championship (formerly known as the British Open) is the third of the four major championships of the year.
The first, The Masters, held each year at Augusta National, was won by Sergio Garcia. It was his first win in a major championship in over 70 starts. He had finished in the top-10 over 20 times – including three top-10s in the Masters – but never managed to come out on top.
The next, the US Open, held this year at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, was won by Brooks Koepka. Koepka fired a 16-under over the four days to match the tournament record set by Rory McIlroy in 2011. It was also his first major championship win – though he only turned pro in 2013, so he’s had significantly fewer starts than Sergio.
It’s time for another first-time major winner to take his rightful place in golf history.
If I were to watch this weekend – which I won’t, because I think I’ve said before that I can’t justify the expense of cable TV anymore just for golf – I’d be on Team Lee Westwood. I mean, I’m on Team Westwood anyway, even though I’ll be cheering silently as I watch the scoreboard update periodically on the Internet.
But I digress.
Mr. Westwood is starting in his 80th major championship without a win this week. He’s got 18 top-10s. Three of those were second-place finishes.
At least one of those championship losses can be pinned down to a single mistake when at the 2011 PGA Championship, after finishing tied for the lead after 72 holes with Luke Donald, Westy took an aggressive approach to the 18th green in an attempt to get inside his playoff partner, who had stuck his approach to about six feet. Westwood’s aggressive decision saw him put too much backspin on his ball and it ran off the front of the green into the water hazard, taking his chances of winning the tournament with it into the drink.
He’s one of very few golfers who have won professional golf championships on five continents, he took Tiger Woods’ World No. 1 ranking in 2010 and held it for 22 weeks, and he’s been named the Team Europe captain for the next Ryder Cup tournament after playing in the last 10 straight Ryder Cup tournaments on the European side. He’s won 42 professional golf tournaments over his 20+ year career, just not one of the four majors.
He’s also one of the nicest guys in golf, from what I can tell from interviews and appearances. I mean, it takes a certain kind of guy to be at the level he’s consistently been at for two decades – he’s still ranked No. 57 in the world at the age of 44 – and play numerous rounds with a random YouTube goofball (in the best sense of the word) like Mark Crossfield and his friend Lockey.
So I’m on Team Westwood this week, as I am every week he’s playing in a major and will continue to be for as long as he doesn’t have a major win.
In fact, I’ll probably keep cheering for him even after that, because this guy deserves to have a bunch of them.