| Loch
Lomond, 11th July 1998 -
Lee Westwood pulled off a third victory in his last four European Tour events
on Saturday when he won the Standard Life Loch Lomond World Invitational by four
strokes. Westwood
took his winnings for the three victories to £433,000 pounds as he returned to
the top of the European money list by picking up the £141,660 first prize in Scotland.
A closing one-under-par
70 for a total of eight-under-par 276, left him four better than a group of five
which included his co-overnight leader and playing-partner Dennis Edlund of Sweden.
His fourth success
of the year, three in Europe and the Freeport McDermott Classic in America the week before
the Masters, installed the 25-year-old Englishman as one of the favourites for
next week's Open Championship title at Royal Birkdale.
If he does win
his first major he will pick up a million dollar bonus. The
Loch Lomond sponsors are offering $1million for the player who has won their event
and goes on to clinch the third major. Westwood
came up with the first part of the double when Edlund's late mistakes relegated
the Swede to a share of second place with a closing 74. With
Edlund on 280 was Ian Woosnam of Wales, who led the first round and closed with
the best final round, a 66, Australian Robert Allenby (68), Argentina's Eduardo
Romero (68) and David Howell of England (71). Victory
put Westwood more than £100,000 above Scotland's Colin Montgomerie at the
top of the European money rankings. Montgomerie
had to settle for a share of seventh place on 281 with a 70, and the defending
champion Tom Lehman of America also took a back seat to Westwood, finishing on
282 with a 72. After
starting with a three-shot advantage over the field with Edlund, Westwood looked
to be running away with things, picking up two shots going out as the Swede could
only manage level-par, largely by double-bogeying the seventh. However,
then Westwood faltered with back-to-back bogeys after the turn to bring Edlund
back into the picture, the rest of the field failing to gain much ground. But
when amateur magician Edlund triple-bogeyed the 15th as his ball did the vanishing
trick into woods, Westwood was able to stroll to victory. "There's
no reason why I can't go on to win again next week," said Westwood. "I'm
certainly playing well enough. "I
realise there is a one million dollar bonus but if I win my Open and lift up the
old Claret Jug, that will mean far more than money." Montgomerie
is in danger of losing his European crown this year to Westwood after the Scot's
five consecutive number one spots, and the 35-year-old recognised that Westwood
is now the man to beat. "Lee's
playing fantastic and he's the guy to beat in most tournaments. He and I are the
guys to beat. It's great to have competition. It makes the world go round,"
he said. Edlund
agonisingly missed out on one of the top five spots from a mini order of merit
-- stretched over seven events -- which would have handed him one of the five
remaining qualifying places for The Open. A
birdie on the last would have got him in but instead, veteran Australian Peter
Senior took the last qualifying slot. The
top four places all went to Britons, David Carter, Sam Torrance, David Howell,
who achieved his by finishing tied second, and Peter Baker. | 
