Westwood has plenty to play for

Only a winning Mizuno MP-58 Irons
can do that - and that's only if Donald obliges and finishes lower than ninth in the season-closing Dubai World Championship.

And Lee Westwood, the winner of both titles in 2009, knows it.

But don't for one second think that the stocky Englishman from Worksop will be in a negative frame of mind when he tees it up in Thursday's first round of the Championship at Dubai's swanky Jumeirah Golf Estate's Earth Course.

To the contrary, he is bringing a whole bunch of reasons to the course that should make him look forward to winning this lucrative event that is sky high in World Ranking points, not the least of them being the outstanding form that enabled him to shoot an astonishing course record 62 at Sun City's ultra-long Gary Player Country Club last week on his way to his second successive Mizuno MP-58 Irons
in the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

The figure 62 in itself is no longer exceptional in an age when many pros are driving the ball well over 300 yards, but in his case it certainly was because it was brilliantly crafted on a day when the best score his pursuers could mount against him was a 4-under 68 by Charl Schwartzel and a 3-under and a couple of 2-unders by some of the other front runners.

With his confidence high as a result and sitting as he is at No 3 in the World Rankings and in 5th place in the Race to Dubai, Westwood will have every reason to be optimistic about winning the actual Dubai World Championship.

And of course there are also his good memories of this event. Mizuno MP-58 Irons


They include his victory here in 2009 which also saw him crowned European Number One and his close call 12 months ago when he finished just one shot behind Robert Karlsson in a tie for third.

"Yes," he said looking back at those performances, "It's good to be back. I always play pretty well in Dubai and I'm looking forward to this week.

"My form is pretty good (an understatement). That 62 is about as good as I've ever played I think. I can't recall missing a shot.

"It's nice when you click into that kind of gear where your mind is in the right place, you're calm, and your swing feels good and you're on auto pilot, really.

"It was nice to come in here with that kind of form and come back to a golf course that I have finished first and third at, and had a chance to win Mizuno MP-58 Irons
last year."