Worldwide Golf

LEE Westwood won his first title since the 2007 British Masters with a superb two-stroke victory over Italian Francesco Molinari at the Portugal Masters.

The Englishman fired a 6-under-par 66 to shoot up the leaderboard and into the top spot ahead of Molinari, who started the day in second place and overnight leader Retief Goosen, who slipped to sixth place.

“It was nice to finish it off, you never know when the next win is going to come and you start to question yourself,” said Westwood, who took the lead in The Race to Dubai with his €500,000 winner’s cheque. “You always slightly doubt yourself in the back of your mind and to be number one again feels great. It’s been nearly ten years since I won it (the Order of Merit).”

Westwood opened with rounds of 66 and 67 before weekend rounds of 66 saw him take the title at 23-under-par, and the win takes him up to fifth on the Official World Golf Ranking.

“I’m delighted about the world rankings. I always have a good look at that and it’s a reflection of my consistency,” he said. “But winning is definitely a habit and I got out of the habit. Hopefully now I have won again I can win more.”

Molinari had to settle for his second runner-up finish of the season while Ireland’s Padraig Harrington finished in outright third place.

“I struggled a bit with the putter today,” said Molinari. “Right now I’m disappointed but probably tomorrow I will feel better.”

Harrington had fired himself into contention with opening rounds of 69 and 62 but a third round 71 saw him drop down to 14^th place, six shots off the lead entering the final round. The three time Major winner carded a superb final round 67 but it wasn’t enough to challenge for the top spot.

“In hindsight I think I got dehydrated,” said Harrington. “I struggled to concentrate. I drank a phenomenal amount, just not enough. My trainer was watching on TV and you can see it in your face - your eyes really.”