Lee Westwood made history at Trump National Doral on Thursday morning when he became the first player to appear in 50 World Golf Championship events.
Westwood’s WGC journey started in February 1999, when he was knocked out in the first round of the WGC-Match Play Championship.
It was an inauspicious start to his WGC career but, just nine months later, the Englishman showed he was more than capable of holding his own in such elevated company with a tied fourth finish behind Tiger Woods in the inaugural WGC-Cadillac Championship, held at Valderrama.
That performance earned Westwood €150,000 and helped him finish runner-up on The European Tour Money List behind Colin Montgomerie.
Fast forward to March 8, 2015, and Westwood is competing in the WGC-Cadillac Championship for the 14th time, having also featured 14 times in the WGC–Match Play Championship, 16 times in the WGC–Bridgestone Invitational and six times in the WGC–HSBC Champions.
The golfing landscape has changed dramatically over those 16 years – this week’s prize fund, for instance, is almost twice the size as at the inaugural event – and yet one of the few constants has been the presence of one Lee John Westwood.
Speaking ahead of his opening round of 71, Westwood said: “It’s obviously a nice milestone to reach – even if it makes me feel old! I guess it just goes to show I’ve been playing this game at a high level for a long time now.
“I’ve got a pretty decent record in all the WGCs, although I haven’t enjoyed much success on this course. I think I’ve only had one top 20 finish at Doral, so I’d like to improve on that this week if I can. The course probably suits me more since they’ve made the changes to it, so that gives me some confidence.
“I’d obviously like to win one of these before I hang up my clubs, but if it’s not this week I’m sure there will be plenty of other opportunities. I feel like I’m swinging the club well enough to compete here, I just need to hole a few more putts.”
Westwood is one of 35 European Tour Members in the field at Trump National Doral for the first World Golf Championship event of the 2015 season.
