Lee Westwood leads European challenge

Later this week, England's Lee Westwood tees up at Valhalla attempting to become the first European-born golfer to win the PGA title since Tommy Armour achieved that feat at Fresh Meadows in 1930. Westwood harbors no doubts about the rigors of the examination he faces, not least from the omnipotent Tiger Woods, but it is a challenge he relishes after a glorious run of form that has catapulted him into the No. 1 position on the European Tour's Order of Merit.

Three months ago, it was an altogether different story. Westwood's great friend and rival Darren Clarke, the recipient of a $1 million check after defeating Woods in the final of the Andersen Consulting WGC Match Play Championship at La Costa, seemed to have a insurmountable lead at the top of the European Tour's money list, but now that advantage has evaporated after a run of results from Westwood reminiscent, to a certain extent at least, of what Woods has achieved on the PGA Tour and what Australia's Karrie Webb had done on the LPGA Tour. Now all that remains is to tag a major title behind his name.

Westwood, in his own mind at least, goes into this week's PGA Championship with an excellent chance of overcoming Woods, and the rest of the leading Americans, and becoming the champion of a tournament which, traditionally, has been a graveyard for British and European hopes.

It is a belief based on the fact that in his last nine tournament appearances the Englishman has won more than $1,600,000 during a purple patch which culminated in him winning the Volvo Scandinavian Masters at Kungsangen, his last competitive appearance before coming into the PGA at Valhalla.

During that time, he has amassed four victories (European TPC, European Grand Prix and European Open, as well as in Scandinavia), has finished second (Volvo PGA at Wentworth), third (Dutch Open), fourth (English Open) and fifth (U.S. Open). Indeed, during that spell, his only disappointing performance came at the British Open, where he finished tied for 64th place, a distant 22 shots behind Woods. But that was hardly much of a surprise given his much-publicized aversion to the Old Course, a dislike he made public at a recent Alfred Dunhill Cup when he said that the Old Course was "not even among the best 200 courses in Fife (the county it is in), far less than Scotland as a whole."

Not surprisingly then, Westwood goes into Valhalla in a confident frame of mind, albeit still cognizant of the fact that winning regular tournaments is one thing, but emerging victorious in majors is quite another. He also knows that, to date, he has seldom gotten close to the leaders in any of his 17 previous major appearances, although he did, briefly, assume first place at the 1999 Masters before drifting into a share of eighth place.

"I've really started to enjoy myself. That's the key to my recent run," he said prior to departing for Louisville.

"It must be a long time since anyone has had a spell like this in Europe. The only hiccup came when I finished 64th in the (British) Open but everybody knows how I feel about the Old Course so I don't think anybody, least of all me, was too surprised when that happened.

"Now, after winning in Scandinavia, this will be the second time I have gone into a major with a win under my belt and it does wonders for your confidence.

"However, I know a major championship is a very different kettle of fish. They always produce great winners like Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh. But, I will say that the U.S. PGA is much more like a regular tour event than the Masters, the U.S. Open or the (British) Open and, if I carry on playing as well as I have been, I've got to fancy my chances a bit."

Unusually, given Colin Montgomerie's recent domination of the European game, Westwood will probably start out as the favorite among the European contingent, but Montgomerie himself will not be too far behind.

The Scot, as we all know, is something of an enigma when it comes to the majors. Clearly good enough to win one, as he has illustrated several times in both the U.S. Open and the PGA, the stark fact is that he is winless in 38 attempts, a statistic that is bound to concern him as he edges towards veteran status.

Normally, Montgomerie heads out to a major proclaiming his game to be in the best of health so, perversely, it might be a good sign that after the final round of last week's Victor Chandler British Masters, where he finished third, he declared his game to be dreadful. "I didn't drive well. I didn't hit my irons well. I didn't chip well and I putted poorly," was how he described his form during the final round of 70, an analysis which probably sent large numbers of his fans scurrying to place a bet on him at Valhalla, a course where, incidentally he finished tied for 13th the last time the PGA was placed there.

I, for one, still believe that Montgomerie will win a major in the States but, if he is to do so, he has to come to terms both with the American galleries who he believes, with some justification it has to be said, are out to get him, and with a propensity to lose his composure when things go against him at the start of a round. This time, in fact, he didn't even manage to get out of his home country before bemoaning his cruel luck. On being told that his first round tee time was to be 1:42 p.m., he said: "That's hellish. You're up early anyway because of the jet lag and it makes it a long day when you're out at that time. It's also very hot."

In the past, particularly at the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1994, the heat clearly mitigated against him, but that should not be too much of a problem now that he is no longer anything like the weight he was back then. In fact, there are those who believe that Montgomerie has gone too far in his attempts to slim down, one theory being that he is a bit listless at the moment, having lost more than 18 pounds since the Loch Lomond Invitational, the week before the British Open.

Ultimately, until he starts, we will not know whether it will be an upbeat or a downbeat Montgomerie who tees off at Valhalla but, presuming the latter, lest he is encumbered by having the hopes of the whole of Europe resting on his shoulders, who else from the rest of the sizeable European contingent will come to the fore?

Will it be Nick Faldo, who displayed some of his old talents around the time of the British Open but has since missed the cut at the International? Will it be Jesper Parnevik, who started the 2000 season with a flourish but has since become becalmed? Will it be the hugely inconsistent Jose Maria Olazabal, who has won two Masters and is a winner this season, but who is sometimes so errant from the tee that he drives himself to distraction? Or will it be the aforementioned Darren Clarke, the conqueror of Tiger at the Match Play and a man who has since also added the Compass English Open to his name?

Undoubtedly, Clarke has the natural talent to do it, not to mention the proven ability to beat Woods down the stretch, but, in the absence of a charge from Westwood and Montgomerie, it may well be that the biggest European challenge comes from an unheralded threesome who could wander around unrecognized in almost any country club in the States.

Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez, Denmark's Thomas Bjorn and Ireland's Padraig Harrington do not have the high profile enjoyed by Europe's bigger names -- indeed actively shun the limelight -- but their recent results suggest that all three can challenge if their games are on song. Bjorn and Harrington, in fact, simply because they are both still on the right side of 30, have it within them to lead the next generation of European golfers, no mean task given the success that the likes of Faldo, Ballesteros, Langer, Woosnam and Lyle achieved but a short time ago.

Bjorn, putting well, could mount a considerable offensive as he showed for a while at the U.S. Open and, then again, while finishing third at the British Open, but my own pick of the bunch would be Harrington who, little by little, has developed into a performer of considerable quality.

Thanks to his coach, Bob Torrance, the father of Sam, Harrington is now 20 or 30 yards longer than he has ever been before and this additional length, coupled with the drive and determination he has displayed since representing Great Britain and Ireland in three Walker Cups in the early 1990s, make him an accomplished performer capable of taking on, and beating the best. Watch him and see because, shortly, he may not be the anonymous figure he is now.

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