The Barclays Scottish Open 9-12 July 2009

The Barclays Scottish Open  9-12 July 2009

It's off to the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond this week for the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond Golf Club.  Lee won the title here in 1998.  He goes into the event in splendid form.  Lee's caddie this week is Dave McNeilly, who, in the past, was long term caddie for Padraig Harrington.

A few of Lee's younger fans, have contacted us to say they will be following Lee around the course, possibly in hopes of picking up a few tips prior to the Lee Westwood Golf Academy week, which takes place from the 20th - 29th July, this summer. 

Click for Leaderboard and Lee's card...

Lee had an early first round tee time of 0800hrs (BST) from the 10th with Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter, and has a later 1300hrs (BST) from the 1st on Friday.

Disappointingly, Lee ended his day way down the leaderboard after only managing a 2-over 73. 


Struggling with a chest infection, Lee was clearly annoyed with himself when he later told reporters, "I was stupid to go out, especially with The Open next week.  I had hayfever on Monday, and that turned into a chest infection. I had only four hours' sleep on Tuesday and I can honestly say that last night was the first time in my life I tried to sleep and didn't get a wink. I stood on the range and felt completely dizzy. I thought about not playing and probably shouldn't have".  He added, in his frustration, "I've been playing well, and everything feels in the right place."  After visiting the doctor, he was given antibiotics.

He drove his second shot of the day into a hazard and made double-bogey at 10, then dropped a shot on the next as well. He picked up birdies at 13 and 14 but dropped another at 16 to go out in 37. On the inward nine he bogeyed 3 and birdied 7, ending the day in T112nd place..

Lee said he still felt chesty on Friday but having had a good night's sleep, opened with three birdies! He bogeyed the 4th but added birdies at 6 and 9 to go out in 32.  Carding another at 13 (and there could have been a few more, as he had a number of near misses), he ended the day on 3-under par, in T27th place, after he shot a 66.

Rory McIlroy was paired with Lee for the third round, with a 10.04 tee-time.  Lee ended the third round in T6th place, as one of the two highest scores of the day, 64.  He rattled off six birdies in the first nine holes with a bogey at 5, for a 31 and carded three birdies and a bogey on the inward nine.  Once again, there were birdies to be had in the last three holes, that resulted in near misses and sharp intakes of breath from the watching crowd...

When asked about his poor health during the first round,  Lee said, "I went home from here and slept three hours that afternoon and went out and had to do something and got back at 9.30, and slept right through to 9.30; so 15 hours between rounds was just what I needed. I feel fine now. Obviously still have a bit of a bad chest but it's not making me feel ill.
.
I take it back to having the tonsils out last November. I would have had tonsillitis ordinarily getting something like that, but when you take your tonsils out, it just goes to your chest instead. I spoke to Ian Poulter and he had the same thing, and he gets more chest infections than he used to, just a type of defense.

It just goes to show I'm a man who needs his sleep. Three-over after two holes on the first morning and feeling pretty dreadful and not having any sleep at all the night before, I was almost thinking of walking off. But Dave said no, just keep grinding in there and see what happens, and that's what we've done. A couple of good rounds to follow that up, hung on with a 73 on the Thursday and played like I played the last round last week.

Just ask my playing partners or the caddies that watched it yesterday, it could have been 61 or 62 quite easily. Today I was thinking about 59 on the 13th tee. I kept hitting it close, three, four feet all day really. The longest putt I holed was about 15 feet on 4 and 15 feet on 12 out of those nine birdies. Just the sort of golf I've been playing tee-to-green.


It was just unfortunate, I had to wait on the 13th tee, it felt like I had to wait about ten minutes there, and then had to wait for another ten minutes on the next tee. Those short of things just break your rhythm occasionally, especially when you are playing those kind of holes, very risk/reward holes.

But then I got a lovely 3-wood off 15 and a 9-iron to about eight feet and missed that, and played last three holes very solidly, as well.  


 

It was an early lunch for Lee on Sunday, as he had a 12.24 start with Soren Kjeldsen and Jamie Donaldson.  A final round of 71(par), saw Lee finish the event on 10-under par (274) and in T8th position on the leaderboard. His prize money of €82,382, earned him 11th spot in the Race to Dubai and he is now 17th in World Ranking.

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