Lee Westwood watched Tiger Woods make one of the most famous putts in golf history, walked off the 18th green, signed his scorecard, did some interviews and headed away from Torrey Pines Golf Course.
“Got out of here, up to L.A. and flew home,” the Englishman recalled.
It was June 15, 2008, the final round of the U.S. Open, and Westwood said Wednesday he didn’t recall returning here until this week.
It turns out he was here for the 2014 Farmers Insurance Open, but he shot over par in all three rounds on the South Course and finished tied for 47th, so a bit of forgetfulness seems forgivable.
Now, with the Open back at Torrey Pines this week, Westwood has returned. There have been changes in the course — and with Westwood, starting with the fact he got married last week in Las Vegas to his longtime girlfriend and current caddie, Helen Storey.
“She’s good mentally for me,” he said. “She can’t really comment (on golf) too much — although she does now and again. She starts to over-caddie and tell me what club she thinks it is. But mentally she’s very good for me. She knows me better than anybody.
“… We just enjoy ourselves, trying to have a good time out there.”
Westwood joked he keeps telling his wife this week in San Diego should count as their honeymoon, but he added, “I think she’s got her eye on somewhere where I don’t take the golf clubs.”
Still, what better time for the 48-year-old Westwood to earn the prize that has eluded him for his entire career — a major championship. He has 44 professional wins in four decades on five continents. But none came in any of his 86 starts in a major. He has 19 top-10 major finishes and nine top-3s — including the only U.S. Open at Torrey Pines when he had a 15-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would have put him in the Monday playoff.
“Had a left-to-righter down the hill,” Westwood said. “Hit what was quite a good putt, and it just hit something. The greens were getting a bit iffy at that stage of the day, and it hit something and went a bit left instead of carrying on and breaking left to right. Obviously missed on the left-hand side.”
Woods made his birdie putt — “That’s one of the loudest cheers I’ve ever heard on the golf course,” Westwood said — and went on to beat Rocco Mediate the next day.
Westwood is one of only 14 players from the 2008 field playing this week, and he’s the low returning scorer, for whatever that’s worth. None of the others ended up closer than five shots behind Westwood, who finished at even-par 284.
“It feels pretty similar,” he said of the course. “There’s obviously a couple of new tees out there. I don’t 11 and 15 playing so long and 17 as well. …
“I don’t the rough being as thick around the greens in 2008. I it being as thick off the tee. In fact, I think it may even be a little bit lighter this year in patches. It certainly, I think, gives you a chance. I missed the fairway on the first down the right-hand side and was surprised I had a shot. Last time I was out there, it was kind of a gouge-out shot and try to get it up-and-down.
“But certainly around the greens, it’s going to be an extreme test.”
Westwood might have liked his chances better had the tournament been played three months ago, when he was at the top of his game, finishing second in consecutive weeks at Bay Hill and the Players. But he missed the cut in three of his six PGA Tour stroke-play starts since, and his best finish was a tie for 21st last month at the Byron Nelson.
And yet, as he said Wednesday, “There’s no reason why I shouldn’t play well this week. I know the course well. I’ve proved myself around here before, and if I hit that first fairway, I make it up as I go along from there.
“ … I just like the place. I think it’s a good, honest test of golf.”
