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Lee Westwood and girlfriend/caddie Helen Storey pose for photographers at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Sunday. 

By Kent Gray
At an age when others are counting down the few birthdays left before they can become competitive again on the seniors’ circuit, Lee Westwood suddenly finds himself fielding questions about representing Europe in an 11th Ryder Cup.

It’s not that the Englishman wasn’t feeling every one of his 47 years, seven months and 20 days on Earth Sunday. A back injury that ruled the Englishman out of last week’s Golf in Dubai Championship and limited his prep for this week’s DP World Tour Championship to nine practice holes, is apparently a tad more serious than an untimely niggle.

His ticker might have skipped a beat or three as the whereabouts of Race to Dubai trophy for 2020 swung on just about every putt on an extraordinary final day to an unforgettable European Tour season. Ultimately, any discomfort will likely be numbed overnight as Westwood celebrates his third Harry Vardon Trophy and the enhancement of his legacy of one of the old world circuit’s true thoroughbreds.

RELATED: Westwood and Fitzpatrick share the spoils as a crazy year meets a fitting end

Count on the former world No.1 and oldest ever European No.1 doing everything in his powers to get himself fit for the start of the new season too. For Westwood is a golfer reborn, a man loving life approaching his 28th season on the European Tour. As he said after crucially birdieing the 16th and 18th en-route to a closing 68 on Sunday, “I don’t want it to end”.

“The motivation’s never changed, really. I get to get up each day and do the job I love. I’ve always wanted to be a golfer, and I don’t want it to end,” he said.

“So I’m prepared to keep working hard and put myself in the line of fire and try and get into contention in tournaments. It’s where I’m most comfortable and what I love doing. I love the work away from the course and the gym and on the range, the hard work that people don’t see, I love that.

“I don’t need to motivate myself very often.”

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Westwood sets up his pivotal birdie on the 72nd hole.

Westwood’s runner-up finish to Matthew Fitzpatrick in the DPWTC improves his legacy and world ranking but sadly carried zero Ryder Cup qualifying points; those precious morsels are back on the table next month. But the way he’s book-ended such a challenging year with his January victory in Abu Dhabi and the Race to Dubai title at Jumeirah Golf Estates, Westwood is clearly on captain Padraig Harrington’s radar for the rescheduled Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits next September. Westwood served as one of captain Thomas Bjorn’s assistants at Le Golf National two years ago but his form and experience might make him hard to leave out even if he doesn’t secure one of the automatic qualifying spots.

“I’d love to play again obviously. It beats watching,” Westwood said.  “Yeah, if I qualify for the team then I’m clearly good enough, and you know, that’s the way I’m going to play it. I can still turn up to the biggest tournaments and compete as I proved at the start of the year in Abu Dhabi; the U.S. Open where I bogeyed the last two holes, and if I hadn’t, I’d have finished fifth, and here.

“I’m not going to say it’s one of my goals for next year because you should never make Ryder Cup one of your goals. You should break it down to try and play well each tournament. But I could see it happening.”

But Whistling Straits can wait. On Sunday, it was time to celebrate joining Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, Scot Sandy Lyle, Englishman Bernard Hunt and South African Bobby Locke as a three-time European Tour No.1. Only Colin Montgomerie (8), Seve Ballesteros (6) and Peter Oosterhuis (4) have won the old order of merit more times.

“They have all been very different,” Westwood said when asked to sum up his Race to Dubai wins from 2000, 2009 and Sunday.

“I guess 2000, sort of I was winning a lot, but I was still like up-and-coming. It was only my seventh year on Tour. 2009, I was honing in on the best player in the world spot, and I needed to win here to win The Race to Dubai, and I managed to do that.

“And then this one, I’m kind of the more mature player on The European Tour now. It wasn’t something I set out to do at the start of the year, but it shows the consistency I’ve shown.

“The most satisfying thing is doing it under pressure when it matters. You know, coming out this week knowing nothing but a win or second will do, and pulling it off, really. You know, those last three holes, I’m really proud of — well, the last four holes, and I missed from three feet on 15.

“My proximity to the hole today, my iron play was stunning. I missed from 10 feet on the first, eight feet on the third, eight feet on the fourth, eight feet on the fifth. It just kept — wouldn’t go in the hole. But I kept grinding it out and made two birdies in the last three holes, and a nice 15-footer on 17 when I needed to, so it’s very satisfying.”

Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Westwood credits his girlfriend/caddie Helen Storey for being a necessary “calming influence”.

There were plenty of folks to thank afterwards including caddie and bride-to-be Helen Storey.

“Yeah, that’s exactly it. She’s a calming influence on me. You know, we talk about things away from golf. That’s kind of our thing. We keep me focusing on golf as little as possible, really, especially when I’m out on the golf course.

“She gives me a reality slap every now and again, and that’s the kind of thing I need, not to get carried away and blow it out of proportion. We obviously get along very well, and it’s a nice environment to play golf in.”

Westwood also praised the European Tour physios for allowing him to get through the week.

“Well, I got my back, back to pretty decent; now I’ve had to lift that massive trophy and strained it again,” he joked.

“No, start of the week, I had no expectations. I had hit balls for about 45 minutes, maximum, at any one period of time for the previous sort of 2½ weeks.

“The two lads in the physio unit, Nigel and Rob, have done an incredible job on me. They have stretched me in places I didn’t think I had, and they have given me a massage twice a day. They are really the two ones that kind of kept me going this week. First thing in the morning and after I had played, and I’m very appreciative to the job they have done on my back this week.”

Were you on painkillers today, and will your back require any surgery or can you get away with medication?

“The lads have done a brilliant job this week and I’ve been taking painkillers and they have got it to a stage where I’m not thinking about it when I’m not playing.

“What I need to do is go away and not hit balls and do the same thing on it so it improves. I don’t want to come out next year and have physio twice a day and take painkillers. I need to give it rest and do the correct stretches and soft tissue work and get going again beginning of next year and get ready for Abu Dhabi, Dubai.”

Roll on 2021 and the Desert Swing. Like Westwood, we can’t wait.