Lee Westwood won the British Masters at The Belfry by a convincing five-shot margin after a flawless final round of 65.
Westwood surges to victory after superlative 65
Lee Westwood won the British Masters at The Belfry by a convincing five-shot margin after a flawless final round of 65.
Westwood started the day two shots back of overnight leader, Mark Foster, and spent much of the final round battling with Foster and fellow Englishman Ian Poulter.
Indeed, Poulter found himself only one behind Westwood through 15 holes, but the man from Worksop made his decisive move with a 30-footer for birdie at 16 and an even longer putt for eagle at the par-five 17th.
That took him to -15 and Poulter was unable to respond, a bogey at the last ultimately dropping him back to -10.
Any faint hopes Foster harboured effectively disappeared when he hooked out of bounds on the 13th to record a double-bogey six.
The win, Westwood's second of the season, was his 18th career title and earned him a first prize of £300,000 and valuable Ryder Cup qualification points.
Ideal start
The 34-year-old made the ideal start on Sunday with birdies at two and three immediately closing Foster's overnight advantage and he then picked up another shot at the short seventh as he hit the turn in 33 shots.
A further birdie arrived at 13 to maintain his momentum and his heroics on 16 and 17 saw him surge clear of his rivals definitively.
A delighted Westwood said of his finish: "It was a great finish and I hardly put a foot wrong. Obviously the 16th and 17th killed off anybody else's chances.
"I holed one like that on 16 against Tiger (Woods) in the Ryder Cup. The eagle then put the icing on the cake."
Poulter was also in good shape after birdies at three and seven, but a bogey at nine interrupted his progress.
He seemed to recover as he picked up strokes at 11 and 13 to reignite his challenge, but he was powerless to respond once Westwood made his late move.
He eventually finished one stroke clear of Foster who took third on his own at -9, while there was a seven-way tie for fourth with Fredrik Andersson Hed, Michael Campbell, Niclas Fasth, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Soren Kjeldsen, Zane Scotland and Sam Walker all ending on -7.
A final round push from Colin Montgomerie - starting the day four back of the lead - never materialised with the Scot carding a two-over-par 74 to finish on -4.
