Lee Westwood

I know a few guys who've worked on Irish Opens down through the years, some golf fans, others not but golf fan or not, while telling tales of their experiences, all of them have mentioned that Lee Westwood stood out as an absolute gentleman, so while I haven't met him, I respect and support him for that and hope he can win a major. And I honestly believe that he will before long.

And just for comparison, remember that Bubba Watson and Jason Dufner (historically bad putters) each have a major while Ian Poulter and Steve Stricker (historically good putters) are each without a major win.

Topper Harley wrote: »

I know a few guys who've worked on Irish Opens down through the years, some golf fans, others not but golf fan or not, while telling tales of their experiences, all of them have mentioned that Lee Westwood stood out as an absolute gentleman, so while I haven't met him, I respect and support him for that and hope he can win a major. And I honestly believe that he will before long.

And just for comparison, remember that Bubba Watson and Jason Dufner (historically bad putters) each have a major while Ian Poulter and Steve Stricker (historically good putters) are each without a major win.

I've no doubt that Westy is a lovely guy 99% of the time. However, you don't get to where he has got in life without also have a bit of an edge to him. We've seen it from him in terms of:
- Dropping his good pal and loyal bagman just as he was recovering from a knee injury
- The ungracious treatment of Rory McIlroy which seems to have soured relations between the two formerly good mates
- The lack of a public acknowledgement of Justin Rose's major success

To be honest, I've heard that nearly all of them are a bit like that. It's a solitary game, they all have egos, and they all have to be a bit selfish at times.

BigChap1759 wrote: »

Westwood's problem is that he seems to think he deserves to win a major becasue of his talent and having put himself in the position on numerous times - it comes across to me as almost a sense of entitlement and that it's very unfair that he hasn't won one thus far.

Unfortunately his short game is just not up to the task when the pressure comes on - he has proven this time and time again.

Where do you get that? When has he said he deserves a major? You are speculating and using a very blurry image of the guy to make an assumption through your own bias with no proof..

He puts in massive hours practicing and has moved his family to Florida to work on his game which to me sounds more like he is working on his talent in the aim of winning a major rather than expecting to win one.

At the end of the day golf is a loner game where you own your own destiny and I would imagine to excel in circumstances like this you need to have massive self belief and a ego that makes you believe you will win every tournament you start. He showed a human side and he gets attacked but then Tiger gets critisied for being a machine they cannot win and then the small bit of their lives people know about allows them to make assumptions about their character.

BigChap1759 wrote: »

I didn't say he said he deserves a major - that is the impression he gives out in interview after interview, blown major chance after blown major chance.....

But is that not part of being a top pro having the belief you should win? Otherwise you are an also ran before you even tee off.

I don't see anything wrong with having the belief that he should win as he puts in the work, it's not like he is sitting around waiting for it he is putting in the hard work to win it.

Russman wrote: »

True, but if the fans turned against him some of the sponsors wouldn't be long following suit. The last thing a Ping or a UPS or whoever wants is for their product to be associated with a surly f--k who doesn't care about his fans.

There's no hard and fast rules, some sponsors ditched Tiger, some didn't - depends on who is running the marketing departments at any point in time.

Fans and sponsors are equally important but in different ways.

I don't particularly like LW to be honest but I don't hate him either - I think in this case he can be forgiven a fairly minor faux pas on a pretty unblemished record. He shouldn't have taken the bait & the red mist descended, hey, it happens. No one died.

Exactly, which is why he, correctly, apologised to sponsors and fans.
The original post was complaining that he apologised to the sponsors for some unknown reason.


I dont think any differently of him because of the twitter thing, if anything it shows that he is just a normal person and not winning is annoying him just as much as it annoys you or I.

Ive never really warmed to the guy based interviews etc, but I dont know him at all, so its all based on perception from interviews.

Recent carry on has confirmed what I always thought, the guys a bit of a spanner...