Golf News - Lee Westwood wins Thailand Golf Championship and Ian Poulter wins Australian Masters in Melbourne
Last updated 1/5/2012 4:35:06 PM
Golf News - Lee Westwood wins Thailand Golf Championship and Ian Poulter wins Australian Masters in Melbourne
Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter ensured that English golf ended on a massive high as they both ended 2011 with victories on the Tour.
Westwood, after an unbelievable opening two rounds, recorded a seven-shot win over Charl Schwartzel at the Thailand Golf Championship while Poulter won the prestigious Australian Masters in Melbourne.
The 38-year-old Englishman Westwood fired a closing 69 to end 22 under for the four rounds and consequently moved above Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy into second place in the world rankings.
Westwood made a stunning start to the Asian Tour event and was a record 18 under par after the first 36 holes, leaving a quality field trailing in his wake.
"I've amazed myself really," he said. "It's been staggering. It's probably the best I've ever played."
I'll go into the winter with a lot of confidence and I'll try to come out next year playing the same kind of golf as I played this week, a little bit leaner and well rested."
The Worksop golfer began the day only four shots clear of the South African Schwartzel by 11 at halfway after following up his record breaking 12-under-par 60 in his first round with a 64 in his second.
The gap was reduced to three shots when Schwartzel birdied the opening hole of the final round, but Westwood quickly struck back with two birdies of his own at the second and third holes.
Masters champion Schwartzel had a glimmer of hope on the back nine when he eagled the par-five 11th to, once again, get within three. But Westwood struck back with three birdies between the 12th and 15th holes.
Schwartzel then bogeyed the penultimate hole and slipped further behind with a five at the last.
Westwood, who has rejoined the US Tour for 2012, said he plans to take a break over the Christmas period and then improve on his fitness for the New Year.
England's Simon Dyson shot six birdies against three bogeys for a 69, sharing fourth place with Thailand's Chawalit Plaphol, who shot a 67 which was the equal best round of the day with Germany's Alex Cejka, who was eighth.
The other winning Englishman, Ian Poulter, overhauled home hero Geoff Ogilvy to clinch the Australian Masters title in Melbourne with a crushing final round.
Poulter, 35, trailed Ogilvy by two strokes overnight but hit a final-round 67 to win by three shots at 15 under.
Ogilvy slipped back with a 73 to end 11 under behind Marcus Fraser (64) and Peter Senior (70), while world number one Luke Donald shot 72 for four under.
Poulter, ranked 28th in the world, won the last of his 14 previous titles at the Volvo World Match Play in May.
On a windy day at the Victoria Golf Club, Poulter erased 2006 US Open champion Ogilvy's lead on the first hole with an eagle two and then birdied the seventh and ninth for a two-shot lead.
Ogilvy, who had equalled the course record on his boyhood track with an eight-under 63 in the third round, struggled to get any momentum going on Sunday and carded 12 straight pars before bogeys at the 13th and 15th and a double bogey at the 17th derailed his challenge.
Poulter swapped another birdie on the par-three 16th with a dropped shot at the long 17th, but by then he had enough of a buffer despite Fraser finishing his blistering round with two birdies.
"To come down here the week before Christmas and to win this tournament is very special," he said. "I had a message from former champion Justin Rose who said, 'Put a nice gold jacket in your wardrobe like I have,' and it's nice to do that."
The Florida-based Poulter, who battled food poisoning on Friday, added: "I love being in contention, that's why I play this game of golf. If you're down the field there's no adrenalin, there's no excitement, there's no real interest.
"So that's why I practise hard to put myself in this position to enjoy the fact of being under pressure because you find out who you are."
Donald, who won both the European and US money lists this season, had four birdies on the front nine to move up to fifth place, but followed with four bogeys on the back nine to finish shared 12th.
Poulter beat Donald 2&1 in the final of the Volvo World Match Play in Spain and won twice in 2010, capturing the Hong Kong Open in November and defeating another Englishman, Paul Casey, to win the WGC-Match Play Championship in Arizona in February.