Wednesday 29 October 2014 13:42, UK
Lee Westwood is feeling ‘pretty confident’ ahead of this week’s $7 million CIMB Classic at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.
The Englishman won the Malaysian Open by six shots in April on the same course and goes into this week’s tournament in good form, recording a tied 12th finish at the season-opening Frys.com event on the 2015 PGA Tour calendar earlier this month.
He also notched two points in Europe's Ryder Cup victory over the US last month and is confident he can put in a good showing back on a course that suits his game, with the tournament getting underway on Thursday.
He said: "I'm playing nicely at the moment. I played well in Napa (California) a couple of weeks ago and it's nice for me that it's a nice setting.
"I'm the most recent winner around this golf course so I'm pretty confident as far as this week's tournament is concerned."
Regarding his big win at the Malaysian Open in April, Westwood added: "I played it at 18-under and won by six so you'd have to say it suits my game.
"That was a great week and it's strange I'm going to be playing three tournaments in 10 months on this golf course.
"It doesn't often happen, moving the Malaysian Open next year to February, and there's obviously the reason for that... so it's obviously a good golf course because they keep putting tournaments around it and people enjoy playing it."
I'm the most recent winner around this golf course so I'm pretty confident as far as this week's tournament is concerned.
Westwood knows what it takes to win tournaments in Asia, having also tasted success with back-to-back Indonesian Masters titles in 2011 and 2012 and the Thailand Championship in 2011.
He added: "You're not going to function if you get dehydrated out there and lose energy.
"Your brain is going to stop working and then you need to use your common sense and have good course management skills.
"I think there are a lot of opportunities to take holes on out there but at the same time there are a lot of opportunities to play conservatively and take par on certain holes.
"You don't want to be coming out of the rough because the greens seem to stay firm.”
