Lee Westwood storms to top of World Tour Championship leaderboard as Rory McIlroy wilts in Dubai heat
English veteran thrives in the heat while the Northern Irish superstar suffers a meltdown in Dubai with a 75
RORY McILROY suffered a meltdown in the desert as Lee Westwood threw his World Cup snub back into the faces of fellow Englishmen Chris Wood and Andy Sullivan.
Westwood romped to the top of the leaderboard at the DP World Tour Championship with a brilliant six under part 66.
And he warned Wood not to expect any favours for next year’s World Cup after bumping him off the England team for next week’s global shoot-out in Melbourne.
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Westwood commented: “It’s up to Woody to pick whoever he wants to as his partner, and he’s gone for one of his mates in Sully – but he probably shouldn’t expect a pick if I move back above him in the world rankings next year!”
While Westwood, 43, was rolling back the years, McIlroy suffered a painful new experience at the World DP Tour Championship – his first round over par in the event in 29 outings here.
A shocking 75 left him in joint 55th place in the 60 man field, nine shots behind Westwood - who made no attempt to hide his satisfaction that Wood was on the same mark as McIlroy, with Sullivan a shot worse off after a four over par 76.
Wood ditched Westy as his World Cup partner next week after being named as England’s spearhead when Danny Willett withdrew, and that has clearly left a bitter taste.
Westwood added: “All aspects of my game were working well. This is as good as I’ve played in quite a while, and it was nice to show I’m still capable of shooting the sort of low scores that will win any tournament.
“I’m 12th in the money list, so it’s obviously been a good year without being anything spectacular, and it is disappointing that I won’t get to finish it be representing England in the World Cup.
“The rules state that the No 1 player from the world ranking list can pick any partner he wants to, but I just think being told you’re off the team a week before you head to Australia is a bit late.
“I guess I need to be higher in the world rankings to pick my own partner, and another victory here would certainly help in that respect.
“Winning here in 2009 is certainly among the top two or three performances in my career – maybe even the best knowing I needed to beat Rory to win the Race to Dubai and I dominated the field to win by six shots.
“I’ve also had a couple of other top five finishes here, so this place holds good memories for me. And with course set-up being pretty tricky today, you couldn’t expected to shoot a good score if you had any flaws in your game.”
McIlroy would echo that sentiment – or he would have if he had not been whisked away for a drug test, sparing him the ordeal of reliving his horror show.
After 27 sub-par rounds here in his previous starts - and a solitary level par 72 ‘spoiling’the run – his struggles came as a huge shock.
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There was not much wrong with his driving, as four bombs that split the fairway beyond the 330 yards marker proved.
But he pulled a series of approach shots well left of the target and also found it hard to get anything going with the putter.
After four early bogeys, he scrambled back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15, and it looked like he might just salvage the round.
That hope evaporated as his second shot to the 16th landed on the edge of a lake, and he had to take one shoe and sock off before wading into the water to splash his ball out at the second attempt.
That led to a double bogey six, and even a defiant birdie at the 18th offered little consolation. His slim chance of retaining his Race to Dubai crown is now almost non-existent.
Front-runners Henrik Stenson and Willett were separated by just one shot, with the Englishman’s 71 allowing him to edge round one.
Alex Noren, the only other player in with a chance of finishing this week as European No 1, also shot 71.
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