It was about this time last year when Lee Westwood enjoyed a career renaissance in the state of Florida. With his fiancée on the bag, the Englishman collected a pair of memorable starts before arriving to the Honda Classic.
In fact, last season marked the first time in his career that Westwood missed the cut at the Champion Course at PGA National. As before, he was a perfect 7-for-7 with two top-5 finishes and two top-10 finishes, the latest being a T-4 in 2020. Arriving this season after partaking in the desert swing on the DP World Tour and Asian Tour, the world No. 41 appears to be in good form. With finishes of T-20, T-32, and T-21 in his three starts, the 48-year-old will feel right at home this week in the Sunshine State. With some scheduling changes compared to last season, it was actually this week last year during which Westwood found the fountain of youth. Finishing runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Westwood kept his foot on the gas and once again finished in second-place as he fell short to Justin Thomas the following week at The PLAYERS Championship. After two, long stressful tournaments, the Englishman arrived to PGA National as it served as the final stop of the Florida Swing in 2021 unlike this year. Perhaps mentally drained from back-to-back contention runs, gamers may want to give Westwood the benefit of the doubt and chalk up his missed cut as an anomaly as he has been stellar in the Honda Classic throughout his career.