Lee Westwood has sung Portrush’s praises
Former European Ryder Cup star Lee Westwood has hailed the town of Portrush and the golf course at Royal Portrush ahead of next week’s Open Championship at the Dunluce Links.
The Englishman, who played in 11 Ryder Cups and won seven of them with Europe, qualified to compete in the 153rd edition of the tournament which will be played on the Northern Irish north coast next week.
Westwood played well on his previous professional appearance at Royal Portrush, finishing in a share of fourth at the 2019 Open Championship when Shane Lowry triumphed, and will be hoping to improve on that in his 90th career Major appearance.
And speaking on the Five Clubs podcast, the 52-year-old – who now plays alongside Graeme McDowell and Tom McKibbin on LIV Golf – has spoken of his love for Portrush ahead of returning there next week.
“It’s a lovely part of the world. The people there are very friendly, it’s a great little town, some great bars and sort of encapsulates The Open feeling. It’s kind of like St Andrews but in Northern Ireland!” grinned Westwood, who is making his first Major appearance in three years at the Dunluce Links.
“The course itself, I fell in love with it years ago when I played the British Amateur there in the early ’90s. Went back for The Open in 2019, when Shane won, and I played well then.
“I’m friends with Darren Clarke, who’s from that area, and Graeme McDowell.
“Really love the golf course itself. It gives you a few chances, it’s tough in a few places, some hard par-threes, some easy par-threes. It throws something different at you every day and with it being a links course and stuck out there, the next land you see out there is Iceland or Greenland, so you get some real weather coming from that direction which changes the golf course completely.”