Westwood confident of PGA Tour success on favourite course

[October 29, 2014]  KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Lee Westwood ended a two-year European Tour title drought at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club in April and he is confident the venue can also help him return to the PGA Tour's winners circle this week.

The $7 million CIMB Classic begins on Thursday at the KLGCC after organisers opted to move away from the short Mines Course to the more taxing layout where the former world number one romped to a big win at the Malaysian Open in April.

"I played it at 18-under and won by six so you'd have to say it suits my game," Westwood told reporters on Wednesday.

"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."
 

The Englishman last won on the American circuit in a playoff at the 2010 St Jude Classic but has been in good form of late, recording a tied 12th finish at the season-opening Frys.com event earlier this month.

That came after Westwood contributed two points in Europe's Ryder Cup victory over the U.S. in Scotland last month.

"I'm playing nicely at the moment," Westwood said. "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."

Westwood has long championed tournaments in Asia and has enjoyed plenty of success, also winning back-to-back Indonesian Masters titles in 2011 and 2012 and the Thailand Championship in 2011.

The challenge of playing in the suffocating heat of Southeast Asia is something the Englishman enjoys and he had some sage advice for the other 77 golfers in the field this week.

"You're not going to function if you get dehydrated out there and lose energy," said Westwood. "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," said Westwood. (Writing by Patrick Johnston, editing by Tony Jimenez)

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