Westy flies through fitness test

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September 17, 2010

European Ryder Cup kingpin Lee Westwood has come through his first 18-hole fitness test with flying colours.

Two weeks before the Ryder Cup Lee Westwood has come through his first 18-hole fitness test with flying colours – in more ways than one.
He not only lookedf physically fit, he also played some great golf.
“Never have I been so excited about a Jaguar corporate day,” joked the world number three after a round at Lindrick near Sheffield on Wednesday that was his first time on a golf course since his ruptured calf muscle flared up again on August 6.
“I was a bit rusty, but I had six birdies and an eagle – in a 30mph wind.”
Westwood feels as certain as he can that he will not only be winning a seventh cap against the Americans at Celtic Manor, but playing a full part in the match.
His fitness trainer Steve McGregor, who has been supervising his rehabilitation, accompanied the 37-year-old who played the first 14 holes on a “fairly undulating” lay-out before McGregor insisted he ride the final four holes in a buggy.
The daily workouts will continue before Europe’s highest-ranked and most experienced team member plays in a charity event at Archerfield in Scotland next Monday and Tuesday.
He plans to walk both rounds there and then, next Friday, he will put himself through 36 holes in one day – the same format as the opening two days of the Ryder Cup.
“That’s for my own piece of mind really,” Westwood told Press Association Sport today.
“If the Ryder Cup was a week earlier I would have made it, but coming when it does I could just take my time and ease my way into it.
“The treatment is going to continue through the Ryder Cup and beyond, though.
“The European Tour have said that Steve can be with me in the week of the match. I want no flare-ups and I want to play a full schedule for the rest of the season.”
Westwood has been troubled by his calf all year, but it was on the eve of the French Open at the end of June that things got so bad he was taken to hospital in Paris.
He played that week and, despite the diagnosis of a ruptured plantaris muscle, managed second place in The Open at St Andrews two weeks later.
Come the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, three weeks after that, however, he quit on the second day – and has not played since.
“When I broke down there Steve said it would take six to eight weeks if I stopped completely and did the rehabilitation properly.
“The Ryder Cup was eight weeks away and he was 99 per cent sure right from the start that I would be all right for it.”
Normal lay-offs see golfers – indeed anybody – put weight on rather than lose it, but Westwood’s gym work has led to him losing almost a stone in under two months.
“I’m lighter, leaner and stronger – fitter than I was before I did the injury.
“The only thing I don’t have is competitiveness. But that does not worry me – the Ryder Cup is completely different.
“It’s match play for starters. If I had a scorecard in my hand I would expect to need a week to get the scoring back.”
He could have used next week’s Vivendi Cup in France as a warm-up – like Padraig Harrington is after falling out of the FedEx Cup in America – but said: “There are a few reasons why I didn’t want to do that.
“It’s a pro-am format for a start and I just wanted to keep my rehab work up, going to the gym in the mornings.”