Westwood savors Dubai success, and return to perch he once occupied

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Lee Westwood would have celebrated becoming the European Tour's top player again well into the early hours no matter how he did it.

But to produce a performance he rated the best of his career made the party all the sweeter in Dubai on Sunday night.

Westwood had had to overhaul a stablemate in the final week just as he did nine years ago.

In 2000, he edged his good friend Darren Clarke for the No. 1 spot when he finished second in the WGC-American Express Championship at Valderrama.

This time, he overtook 20-year-old Rory McIlroy by winning the Dubai World Championship by a season record-equaling six shots and with a 23-under-par display that almost defied belief on the second longest layout in European Tour history.

More than that, he completed it with a course-record 64 and did not have a single bogey in the last 46 holes.

One week's work earned Westwood $2.7 million -- $1.2 million for the tournament win and a $1.5 million money list bonus.

No wonder he was celebrating. But it was about far more than just the cash and how he had just played.

Westwood was fourth in the world early in 2001. A year later, he had crashed outside the top 250, was having to sit out majors and having thoughts about giving up the game.

Now he is back to No. 4, has twice missed out on a first major title by a single shot and believes the best could yet be to come.

"To drop completely into obscurity, I suppose, and come back from it and crown it all by winning this obviously means a lot," he said.

He had promised to reveal some secrets of his performance if he won, but smiled and stated: "The secret was that there was no secret.

"It was making everybody else think I had a secret when I didn't really," he explained. "The big turnaround in confidence was catching (caddie Billy Foster) at the beach party on Tuesday.

"He'd probably just had enough Heineken to tell me what he really thought," he added. "He said I'd been paying too much attention to the other people around me.

"He said 'you've been out here 16 years -- that's longer than all three of them put together (McIlroy, Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher were the only players left in the race to be number one) and you've won 30 times, which is more than them put together'.

"It's a terrible word to use because I hate it, but he said, 'you've got to bully them'. That's why I've been confident all week."

And that confidence only grew some more when he read in the papers something that McIlroy, leader of the Race to Dubai by more than $190,000, had said.

McIlroy stated publicly that he was glad the two of them were not paired in the second round because then he could concentrate on his own game more.

"It was obviously a massive feather in my cap," commented Westwood, who had outscored his rival by two on the first day. "There's nothing worse to say than that if you're Rory -- and he will learn from that -- and there's nothing better for me than a competitor to say they are glad they are not playing with me.

"I read it in the press. I wouldn't have said it, but I've been on Tour 16 years and he's been on Tour three," he added. "Sometimes what you say off the golf course and the mind games you play are as important as the pressure you can put on people on the course."

Westwood already looks a certainty to earn a spot on his seventh straight European Ryder Cup team in Wales next year. But first he would love to get that first major under his belt.

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