Lee Westwood aiming to improve poor record

NO TIGER Woods, no Phil Mickelson. Surely then no better opportunity for Lee Westwood to win his first World Golf Championships title. Except for one thing. In nine previous attempts in the Accenture Match Play he has never been made it beyond the second round, let alone all the way to a title now worth nearly £900,000.

So poor is Westwood's record that when five-year-old daughter Poppy asked on Sunday when he would be back home, the world No 4 had to laugh. "Historically Thursday, optimistically Monday," he said, adding that both Poppy and eight-year-old son Sam then looked at him "quizzically."

Never before, though, has Westwood been the second seed. He has been lifted to that lofty perch not only by his own stellar form, but also by Woods staying out of sight of the world since his private life went into meltdown at the end of November and then Mickelson deciding he was not going to play this week either.

It is only a couple of years ago that Westwood, who faces stablemate Chris Wood in the opening round today, considered skipping the event as well because the long journey had yielded so little reward. "It's debatable, but I had no tournament on the week before and nothing the week after," he said.

"I think it's worth being here because obviously it's a prestigious title, there's plenty of world ranking points and we don't get to play much match play. Everybody's quite capable of shooting a 63 or 62 out there and that can happen against you, so you need a few breaks. You're going to play poorly one round this week and hopefully when you do the other guy plays a little bit worse. But, on the reverse side of the coin, you can shoot 65 and lose."

Westwood's main target for this season is, of course, a first major but, asked where he would rank a World Golf Championship victory, he said: "Just behind a major and the money list. I like the money list (he won that for a second time in November) because it shows consistency over a whole year. But it's certainly only just a tier below that."

There are two other all-European duels in the first round – Luke Donald against Graeme McDowell and Oliver Wilson against Miguel Angel Jimenez. Wilson is hoping that Jimenez is still celebrating his Dubai Desert Classic triumph two weeks ago – he beat Westwood in a play-off – while Donald is looking to follow up his runner-up finish in Los Angeles on the same day.

The player to beat him there was American Steve Stricker, who went to world No 2 as a result and is accordingly the top seed now. Stricker opens against England's last man in Ross McGowan, while fifth seed Rory McIlroy tackles world No 61 Kevin Na.