Westwood confident of riding his lead to the top
World Number 3 says he knows to maintain his Single shot advantage
Dubai: World number three Lee Westwood hopes to be third time lucky at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic as he leads by a stroke after round three at 15-under par 201 (69, 65, 67) yesterday.
Having twice finished second here since debuting in 1994, losing a play-off to Miguel Angel Jimenez in 2010, the 38-year-old Englishman now believes he has the confidence to maintain his lead and head for the podium at the Majlis Course.
But with respective day one leader and runner-up Rafael Cabrera-Bello (63, 69, 70) and Marcel Siem (65, 69, 68), along with Stephen Gallacher (69, 65, 68) all tied for second at 14 under par 202, it will be no easy task. Behind them in a bunched pack for 13-under par 203, tied for fifth is; day two joint leader Rory McIlroy (66, 65, 72), Martin Kaymer (66, 67, 70), Joel Sjoholm (71, 66, 66) and Scott Jamieson (65, 68, 70).
The other day two joint leader, Thomas Bjorn (66, 65, 73) meanwhile, dropped a shot to 12 under par 204 tied for ninth with George Coetzee (69, 66, 69) and Ben Curtis (70, 67, 67).
Westwood, who birdied four on his outward nine — bogeying twice with three birdies on the return, said: "I know how to play with the lead. I won four times last year. When I get a chance I'm pretty good at finishing off. I've won 37 times. That's not somebody that's not good with a lead. It's a habit. You get used to it. You get used to knowing what to do; when to press, when not to press, when to be patient.
"I've put a lot of preparation in so I'm entitled to be confident really. I'm doing a lot of hard work off the course, on the range and around the greens. So why not be confident? I'm seeing improvements in everything and my scoring is lower than it's ever been, I'm shooting 60s and 64s and 62s around tough courses. So why not let myself get carried away by my confidence."
Westwood added: "Hopefully I can keep playing the way I played over the first three days. The first day I was a bit sloppy, shot 69 and it should have been 66 really. Day two I played very solidly.
"Today [Saturday — day three] I played solidly again. It was a little bit tougher with a tad more breeze up and a few tighter flags. But I coped fairly well with that and 67 is probably the worst it could have been."
World number four Martin Kaymer, who is two strokes behind, said: "Westwood, at five under par today is a fantastic round. The pins were tucked in some corners and so I hope they are going to set up the course tough tomorrow. Maybe we've got a little bit more wind, what the forecast is, and then he can't run away and hopefully we can catch him."
