Westwood battling niggles

The Briton is making his first appearance of the year in the tournament but has been bugged by pains in his neck, right shoulder and elbow.

"The neck locked up some time over Christmas and the pain refers down into the shoulder and then into the elbow."
Lee Westwood Quotes of the week

Westwood, 38, is currently tied in 41st after recording successive par rounds of 72.

However, the former world No.1 says he has been suffering from the injuries for a while but the return to action has made him feel the pain.

"I've had it for about a month now but this is the first time I've played three rounds of golf in a row since the end of last year," he told Skysports.

"I felt it more yesterday than I did in Wednesday's pro-am and today I felt it quite a lot. The neck locked up some time over Christmas and the pain refers down into the shoulder and then into the elbow; sometimes it's like a needle's being driven in there."

Although admitting he wasn't anywhere near his best in the opening two rounds Westwood aims to work with his physiotherapist during the day in order to improve his performance.

Struggled

"I struggled to support the club on the backswing today and I didn't feel I could deliver the right amount of power," he added.

"I didn't have the commitment going through the ball so I'll just get it worked on this afternoon to try and free it up a bit for tomorrow."

Westwood started on the back nine in his second round and managed to record a birdie hat-trick on his way to the sixth including a pin-point long-range approach landing six inches short of the pin.

Despite the odd shot finding the sand during his round Worksop-born Westwood insists there is no reason to withdraw from the tournament providing the condition of his neck doesn't worsen.

"If I had hit regularly in the long rough on my back nine I would have struggled but fortunately I didn't," he said.

"I hit off line a couple of times but it went in the desert and that's not quite so bad."