Lee Westwood: “You miss not playing in the biggest championship”

Three years since defecting to LIV Golf and three years since his last major, Lee Westwood certainly thinks so. The primary reason he attempted qualification for this week’s Open at Portrush? “Because I could. You miss not playing in the biggest championship on the planet,” he told The Observer. “It would be nice to play in all the majors.”

Having attempted to qualify for the 1994 Open and first competed in 1995, this will be Westwood’s 28th Open. He wanted to compete at this year’s Senior Open, but his entry was blocked as the over-50s tournament is half-owned by the European Tour, which bars LIV players from playing in any of their competitions. The Championship itself is entirely owned by the R&A.

Now 52, Westwood enjoys the senior events more than most because he recognises his competitors: “It’s really just nice to go and play with guys that I started playing with on tour, my age group, so to speak. Even at 48 years of age, I had children older than most of the people on the PGA Tour, in the European tour. I don’t have a lot in common with them whatsoever.”

Despite winning seven Ryder Cups and once replacing Tiger Woods as world No 1, there is an obvious gap in Westwood’s palmarès. As he skirts around a question about whether he has made peace with being the greatest men’s golfer to never win a major, the answer becomes abundantly clear: no. He reels off 59-year-old Tom Watson losing a play-off in the 2009 Open at Turnberry and Greg Norman leading at Birkdale after 54 holes, a year prior, aged 53.

He knows that contending this tournament in your 50s is feasible – links courses are more strategic, more nous and experience is often required. Massive drives are not as decisive. He finished fourth at the last Open at Portrush, in 2019 aged 46, and has made the top three at three different Opens.

He might not have “any expectations”. But somewhere in there is a dream, a reason why he flew from Dallas to make the qualifier in Dundonald, Scotland, earlier this month, not reaching Ayrshire until Monday evening and then playing 36 holes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some part of him still believes he can climb the hill once more and claim the Claret Jug, otherwise he would not have bothered. He also uses that dash from Dallas as proof he still possesses the requisite fire to stave off inevitable intimations at retirement.

Given he still co-captains the Majesticks GC LIV team with his close friend Ian Poulter, enjoyment is a significant contributor to his continuing desire to compete. Poulter also tried to qualify for the Open, alongside his son Luke, although both missed out. As Westwood’s 23-year-old son Sam attempts to forge a professional career, it is clear that age and golf’s position in his life increasingly dominate Lee’s thoughts.

“Kids take a back seat unfortunately when you’re younger and you have to dedicate your whole life to your sport,” he explained.

“As you get older, you obviously realise that you've missed out on a lot of their upbringing, and you want to spend a bit more time in their lives. Then golf takes a back seat.

“Obviously, you can’t quite work as hard, because your body breaks down easier. You’ve got to have a stricter regime and time management. Maybe you can't work quite as hard, but I still put a lot of effort in off the golf course, in the gym, and I still do the practice.

“As you get older as a sportsman, you’ve got to reinvent yourself and reinvent your goals. Time is the greatest adversary for a sportsman.”

There’s little point asking why he made the move to LIV – it’s all a bit “what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels” – but he insists his career would have been “no different” had he not defected.

Even as the second-highest all-time prize money earner on the European Tour, he would be poorer – he’s earned just over $10m in LIV prize money, aside from his contract and signing-on fee, despite only breaking the top 10 in one tournament since joining the breakaway. Although to give him the requisite credit, his tenth-place finish in Virginia in June was his best result in over a year. There are some signs of form returning.

According to the Official World Golf Ranking, Westwood is currently the 4,689th best golfer on earth (he has not earned ranking points since 2022), but more seriously 45th in the LIV rankings, four places above the “drop zone”. He was saved from relegation from the series in 2023 thanks to his co-captain status, but without a deal for 2026, the future is less clear.

He told The Telegraph that a return to the DP World Tour next year was not infeasible. LIV would pay almost £1m in fines. They would have done it three years ago, but Westwood is extremely stubborn.

And yet he remains an acolyte of the LIV ideal. In May 2024, he told The Rough Cut podcast he believed all golf should eventually be teamplay, but when reminded of this, he rolled back so extremely he denied saying it at all, before conceding he “rambles on”.

“LIV are going along the right ideas,” he said. “I’ve said for a long time that golf takes too long. It’s too expensive. I like the fact that they play music and it's going down the entertainment route where people feel like they can bring young kids along. It's more of a family experience.

“I find myself going to tournaments that aren’t LIV, and I’ll be stood on a tee, and I’ll turn to my caddy, I’ll remark how quiet it is. The atmosphere is not as buzzy.

“LIV franchises would benefit more from maybe being more country based. That's when the teams will be more successful. I think we’ll grasp onto them, because they get quite tribal about team sports, don't they?”

Westwood will return to play competitively in England later this month at the LIV British Open, alongside Poulter and Henrik Stenson for their team, but he will also be one of 19 LIV Golf players competing at Portrush. His ongoing stance on the schism is that a resolution should be found.

“There should be room in a 52-week calendar for LIV to have 14 events and it not affect anybody else,” he said. “The PGA Tour should be able to get on with their thing. The European Tour should be able to get on with their thing. And LIV should be able to do their thing. It should be an addition to the golf calendar. Something different to encourage young fans to come along, to get a different demographic interest and keen on golf.

“But they’re so protective of their own little patch in golf, whether it be the establishment or the PGA Tour in the European Tour, that they monopolise it, because they’re afraid of losing money. That’s what it all comes down to.”

Photograph by Eakin Howard/Getty Images