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Westwood hails DWC as “best ever”
23 November 2009
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Champion Lee Westwood praised the Dubai World Championship presented by: DP World as the best tournament he has ever played.
The Englishman claimed a stunning Dubai World Championship and Race to Dubai double and believes the inaugural tournament, which attracted close to 60,000 spectators, has set the standard for all golf events in the future.
“I’m going to say it’s a fantastic tournament, best ever,” he said. “Seriously, if you ever wanted a tournament to burst on to the scene and have your first one out, that’s probably as good as it gets out there.
“You know, you’ve got The Race to Dubai and the two people that are in the frame for winning it coming down the stretch basically; you probably couldn’t get any better.
“I think Dubai, and the golf course, and The European Tour have come out of it looking fantastic. I think it’s a great effort for golf in this region. It’s a great advert for golf on The European Tour. It shows the quality of the players that we have on this tour.”
Westwood shed tears of joy after scooping the biggest jackpot in European Tour history with what he rated the best performance of his career.
“I think the whole weekend was best ever,” he said. “I haven’t made a bogey over the weekend, two bogeys on the week. 66‑64 the last two days under probably what is going to be the most severest of pressure over a long period.
“I’ve been absolutely spot on where I’ve been aiming. It’s that kind of golf course where you have to play it strategically and leave yourself in areas where it’s easy to get up‑and‑down in two. Definitely my best ever.”
Greg Norman’s stunning new Earth course was being played competitively for the very first time at the tournament and Westwood believes by the end of the week it had proved to be a worthy challenge to the world’s leading players.
“The golf course I thought played really well. I know a lot of people were skeptical before the week started, but I think it got better as the week went on, as the greens firmed up. They were true; if you hit a good putt, they went in.
“There’s plenty of water out there to make it interesting, and I tell you what, that is not an easy finish when you’re under pressure. I’m glad I had a five‑shot lead.”
