European Ryder Cup player Lee Westwood will be one of the biggest stars on local fairways in December when he makes his debut in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek Country Club near Malelane.
Westwood, a member of Ian Woosnam’s victorious European Ryder Cup team and winner of 25 titles worldwide, will join Ernie Els as the major stars at Leopard Creek in a tournament co-sanctioned by the European Tour and Sunshine Tour. Els has already confirmed that he will defend his title.
”I am really looking forward to coming to South Africa in December. It’s definitely one of my second homes,” says Westwood, who last won in South Africa in the 2000 Dimension Data Pro-Am, the same year in which he finished top of the European Tour’s Order of Merit for a record-equalling six victories.
”I’m looking forward to seeing Leopard Creek, which I’ve heard so much about. It’s also an opportunity for me to recognise everything that Johann Rupert and Alfred Dunhill have done for golf around the world, and particularly in South Africa.”
Although Westwood has never played the Leopard Creek layout in a tournament before, he will be in fairly familiar territory in the sense that his brother-in-law Andrew Coltart, another former Ryder Cup player, will also be in the field.
Westwood makes his way to South Africa on the back of a solid year despite the fact that he did not win.
”The season quite pleased me in that I was much more consistent than I had been in the previous one,” he said. ”What was particularly pleasing was that I rediscovered my ability to grind it out again.”
In this sense, the Alfred Dunhill Championship will feature prominently in Westwood’s preparations for the new season. ”I’ve been working out very hard up to three hours a day. I’ve been doing core stability work on my hips and legs followed by 90 minutes’ swimming.” — Sapa